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𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝗶𝘅: 𝗽𝗼𝗴𝘂𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿

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"Cassandra!" Savannah called out to her daughter, who had been rotting in bed all day. Cassie pressed a pillow up against her face, groaning in response. "Cassandra!" Savannah yelled again as she marched into her room, pulling the pillow off of her daughter's face.

"What?" Cassie snapped, giving her mother a glare. Despite their little agreement, that didn't make Cassie suddenly forgive her mother. Even though she didn't know the full truth, she knew that she was keeping things from her. Dark things.

"It's time for you get off your ass and get out of the house," Savannah told her.

"Oh, you don't want me locked in here?" Cassie replied mockingly as she pushed up from her bed, walking past her mother.

"You know we made that agreement," Savannah crossed her arms. "You be good, and you get to leave the house." And by good, she meant not to shout across rooftops that Ward may have killed Big John and Savannah could be involved with it.

"Yeah, yeah," Cassie muttered.

"And so, that's why we're going to lunch. At the Island Club," Savannah revealed.

Casie furrowed her brows and turned around to face her mother. "Uh...what? I never agreed to that."

"Well, you're agreeing to it right now."

"Hell no! I'm not going to the fucking Island Club surrounded by a bunch of Kooks who think John B was a murderer," Cassie rejected, shaking her head.

Savannah closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Cassandra, you're just going to do this for me, okay? Just for an hour. And then you're free to do what the hell you want, I don't care."

Cassie narrowed her eyes. "Oh. I see why you're doing this. Yeah, you're trying to show all these Kooks that your daughter wasn't involved with John B and the Pogues. That I wasn't a part of the wild goose chase. Yeah, I get it now."

Savannah reopened her eyes. "Can you blame me? It was already hard enough being interrogated by the police."

When they made Ward contact John B through the boat's radio, John B had screamed that Ward killed his father. And then when Shoupe heard Cassie yell at her mother in the tent that she and Ward caused this, they wanted to look into the both of them. But they weren't really able to find anything because there was no evidence. Zero, zip, zilch, nada.

Cassie rolled her eyes. "As if you weren't gonna get out of it anyway," she muttered.

Savannah huffed. "Just fucking do this, Cassie. It's for one fucking hour. Stop being a goddamn brat."

"I'm not—!" Cassie stopped herself short, sucking in a breath. There was no point in even arguing anymore. Her mother was just going to shove her into the car anyway, just like she had shoved and locked her in her room. And besides, maybe she should just embrace the Kook life again. It was clear none of the Pogues were going to accept her any time soon. "Fine. Fine. I'll go. But for one fucking hour. That's it."

Savannah forced a grin, finally pleased. "Good. Now get dressed and meet downstairs in fifteen minutes."

Once Cassie was done getting ready, pulling on a short, floral dress with her hair tied back in a braid, her mother drove the two of them to the Island Club. Thankfully, her mother only got a table for two but once they walked in, it was clear that all eyes had been set on them.

She noticed Topper and Kelce sitting at a table with some other Kooks. Kelce had been glaring at her, meanwhile Topper had just been looking curiously. Before the whole gold hunt, she would say that her and Kelce got along. Probably only because she was fun to party with when she went to Kook parties.

As for her and Topper, she didn't like the boy ever since he started to date Sarah. And she hated him even more when he threatened to drown John B like his father had, beat up Pope, and then pushed John B off the Hawks Nest.

But now, Cassie had been a bit confused why it had looked like Kelce wanted to murder her while Topper just seemed to wonder why she was here. She decided to just look away from them, not wanting to deal with any bullshit. And besides, she was supposed to showing everyone that she was still a "normal Kook."

But as she and her mother maneuvered their way to the table the hostess provided for them, Cassie could hear all of the whispers.

"Wasn't she friends with John B?"

"I heard she tried to help him escape."

"I heard she even tried to blame her mother for what happened."

"Those dirty Pogues brainwashed her."

It took everything in the Blake girl not to lash out and start spilling drinks all over the place. Her mother would probably kill her.

She wasn't sure if that was an exaggeration anymore.

So, instead, as soon as Cassie sat down, she picked up a menu and placed it front of her face so she could hide. The days leading up to John B and Sarah's death were way too emotional for her. She couldn't remember the last time she had cried that much. So, in order to cancel it all out, she would just have to hide all of her emotions.

She was great at it. Or, well, she used to be great at it.

As Cassie hid herself behind her menu and searched for what to eat, the waiter walked up to their table. "Hello. I'm JJ and I'll be your waiter this afternoon," the waiter spoke, not looking up from his notepad since he was tired of all the whispers and stares he was getting as well.

Once Cassie heard his name, she froze. JJ works here? She questioned herself.

"Oh, JJ. I didn't know you worked here," Savannah voiced, her tone anything but happy to see him. "It's good you're finally putting in the work, though."

JJ looked up from his notepad. "Mrs. Blake?" He said in confusion before he looked over at the person she was dining with, the menu in front of their face. "...Cassie?" He assumed apprehensively.

Cassie slowly lowered the menu, her lips pursed once she met the boy's skeptical eyes. Those damn eyes. "JJ," she greeted with a curt head nod. The last time she spoke to him, it was her yelling at him. So it was abundantly clear that neither of them wanted to be there right now.

JJ blinked at her before he cleared his throat, looking back at Savannah. "Uh, would you like anything other than water?"

Savannah picked up the glass of water that had already been poured for them. "Water's fine. Thank you."

JJ nodded, taking one last look at Cassie before he walked away to wait on other tables. "You gotta be kidding me," Cassie muttered to herself once he left.

Savannah quirked a brow. "What was that all about?" She questioned her daughter. She knew her daughter hadn't liked JJ, but that whole interaction just seemed...awkward.

Cassie shrugged. "I mean, you know I don't like him."

"But you did spend the whole week with him," Savannah pointed out.

"That doesn't mean I started to like him," Cassie defensively said before she shook her head at herself. "Let's just get this over with fast."

Once Cassie ordered her food from JJ once more, unfortunately, it had been delivered to her and she tried to eat it as fast as could in order to get out of there quicker. Being surrounded by a bunch of Kooks who thought she was an accomplice to murder was already bad enough, but seeing JJ? It threw her entirely off of her game.

Why was she letting him affect her this much?

As she ate her food, she heard someone yell a few feet away, "Shut up, Top!"

Cassie looked over shoulder, seeing JJ at Topper and Kelce's table. "Oh, shit," she breathed out.

All of a sudden, she watched as JJ's face scrunched up furiously before he grabbed a glass cup and a knife, clanking the knife against the cup. "Can I have everybody's attention, please? I have a little announcement to make!" JJ shouted, making everyone look at him. "My best friend, John B, did not kill Sheriff Peterkin! Rafe Cameron killed and shot the sheriff in cold blood!" He announced and Cassie's eyes widened, looking around to see everybody's reactions. It was safe to say that they were definitely not happy. "That's what happened."

"Oh, for Christ's sakes," Cassie heard Savannah grumble angrily.

"Wow," Kelce commented.

"Is that so hard for you to believe, Kelce?" JJ asked, looking down at him.

"It is actually hard for me to believe," Kelce said, standing up, "because you know it's always the-the Kook's fault. It's never the Pogues' fault."

Suddenly, JJ grabbed the pitcher of water off the table and splashed it at Kelce's face, making Kelce go at him.  Cassie stood up from her seat, watching as the two began to bound on one each other. "Are you serious? Knock it off!" Topper yelled as he tried to separate the two.

"Cassie, sit down right now," Savannah demanded through clenched teeth and the blonde looked down at her mother before back at JJ in concern.

Why did she care?

She shouldn't have. Not when she thought she went back to hating him in just a day.

"Stop, get off me!" JJ pushed him back, getting out of Kelce's grip.

"Told you, it's not the time, man," Topper said, holding Kelce back as he glanced back at JJ.

JJ then looked past the two boys, meeting eyes with Cassie as she stood up by her chair. He didn't know why, but he expected her to come marching over there to defend him. But she didn't. She just stared, her forehead crinkled and her lips slightly pouted.

"JJ," Raz, the manager, called out and JJ tore his gaze away from the girl, turning to his manager. Cassie sucked in a breath once he broke eye contact, watching as he went over to the manager.

"Yeah, I know, Raz. I know," JJ said as he pulled his apron off and handed it to Raz aggressively. "I'm fired." He then walked away, holding a hand up to his chest as he began to breathe heavily, almost whimpering.

Cassie watched as he walked away before looking her at Topper and Kelce. Suddenly, her face twisted to one of anger, going over to Topper and Kelce instead of JJ. "Cassie! Get back here right now!" Savannah whisper-shouted before she cursed once it was clear Cassie wasn't going to listen.

"Seriously, Kelce? It's always the Kooks' fault? Well if it was always your fault, you would've been tossed in jail for assaulting him and another Pogue weeks ago!" Cassie shouted in his face once she made it in front of him, making everyone start to murmur around them.

"Cassie..." Topper trailed off, giving her a wide-eyed look. They didn't need any more trouble.

"You too, Topper! Remember when you almost drowned John B, almost strangled Pope, and then you pushed John B off the Hawks Nest?" She listed and some people gasped around them at the information, not knowing what to believe.

Kelce shoved off of Topper, moving forward toward the girl menacingly. "Looks like we got a Pogue lover here, guys! A dirty Pogue lover," Kelce insulted and Cassie glared daggers into his eyes, not backing away from him. "What, you got tired of Rafe and went to Maybank? Makes sense since you guys are both ran-through."

That was the final straw.

Cassie brought her hand up and slapped the boy, causing his head to whip back and for everyone to gasp again. "Fuck you, Kelce! Fuck all of you! You have no idea what happened!" She bellowed and Kelce held a hand up to his face in shock. Cassie then looked over at her mother, who had stood up from her chair with an infuriated expression on her face. "Fuck you," she added in a whisper straight to her mother before she turned, trying to go after JJ.

But he was gone.

Cassie sucked in a breath and paused, turning back around to meet the judgmental stares of Kooks. She ignored them and went back to her mother, who looked like she was about to pop a blood vessel.

"You didn't start to like him, huh?" Savannah tilted her head, not knowing why her daughter would even bother defending a boy she claimed to have hated, let alone in front of everyone when they were supposed to be showing everything was fine. Cassie just shrugged before Savannah grabbed her arm and began to drag her out of the Island Club. "We're leaving."

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

It had been the first day of school for Cassie at Kildare Prepatory, or better known as the Kook Academy. While the Pogues went to Kildare County High School, she was stuck at the Kook Academy alone.

But it wasn't like she'd have anyone either at KCHS.

She had put on the uniform, tying her hair back in her familiar braid. To say she was dreading going had been an understatement. She knew she was about to face a thousand stares from all her peers and bunch of whispers. She had already gotten a taste of it at the Island Club, but she knew it was about to get a whole lot worse.

Especially when it spread around that she slapped Kelce in the face.

Cassie pulled up to the student lot, parking her car in a free space. She took a few breathers, preparing herself for the day. "You got this," she whispered to herself before she looked in her rear view mirror, forcing a neutral expression on her face. It was go time.

She got out of the car and slung her backpack over her shoulder, making her way toward the school. She could feel the stares already starting, but she ignored them as she entered the school.

She made a beeline toward her locker, just wanting to put her books away without making eye contact with anyone. That's how she would survive. No eye contact, no confrontation. And although she loved confrontation, not when it had to do with Kooks who believed she was an accomplice to murder.

However, once she had shut her locker, Kelce had appeared next to her. "Look who it is. Little Miss Pogue Lover," he drawled, some of his Kook friends behind him snickering. Topper had also been there, but he stood with his arms crossed and his lips pursed.

Cassie shut her eyes, sucking in a breath to prepare herself for this. She then turned toward him, putting a sarcastic smile on her face. "Kelce, great to see you. How's your face?" She asked.

Some of his friends start to laugh behind him before he looked over his shoulder, making them stop. "Oh, my face is fine. How's your Pogue boyfriend?"

Cassie's lip curled. "He's not my boyfriend," she denied. "But if he was, why? Would you be jealous?" She teased, tilting her head and pouting her lips.

"Jealous?" Kelce repeated in disgust.

"Yeah. I mean, remember that one party Topper threw last year? You seemed to be all over me then," she called him out, making his eyes widen slightly. It was true. Topper threw a party and Kelce made it his mission that night to hook up with her, even though it never happened. Cassie had been too busy trying to get Rafe's attention in order to go through with her plan to get back at Sarah, but he was still disinterested.

Oh, how she wished he stayed disinterested.

Kelce quickly recovered. "Why would I wanna be all over a slut you? I bet half the population here has already had their hands on you," he insulted, making some of his friends 'ooh.'

"Come on, man," Topper muttered under his breath, looking down and shaking his head.

Cassie narrowed her eyes at the boy, wanting nothing more than to slap him again but she couldn't when she was on school property. She'd probably be suspended and her mother was already furious about what she had done at the Island Club.

"Hm, well, at least I've had more than one hand on me. The only one you've had is your own right hand," she countered, knowing that she was never going to escape the slut allegations so might as well just work with them. "Which reminds me, you should probably start working out that left arm to match whatever you got goin' on with your right one. It seems to be doing all the heavy-lifting."

Some of the Kooks behind him snorted, even Topper. Kelce seethed as he looked back at them before he looked back at Cassie, who sent him a little wave before she turned around and walked away.

Cassie: 1. Kooks: 0.

Maybe she would be able to survive the Kook Academy after all.

As she went through her classes during the day, she still endured stares upon stares upon stares. She just started to stare back at that point, knowing it would make them look away. She was used to being isolated after Sarah had ditched her, so she was already resourceful enough when it came to surviving high school with no friends.

It was just hard dealing with the fact that the friends that had dropped her — the Pogues — she would never hate them like she hated Sarah at one point. Sarah had dropped her for no reason whereas the Pogues had a good enough reason to abandon her.

She was just going to have to live with it.

In one particular class, English to be exact, she had suddenly received a text from an unknown number. She furrowed her brows and tapped on it, making it reveal a photo of...John B and Sarah?

Cassie's breath hitched once she saw the photo. John B had been smiling and Sarah had a hand placed over her mouth giddily. "What the fuck?" Cassie blurted out.

The teacher stopped writing on the board and looked over at Cassie. "Excuse me, Cassandra?"

Cassie blinked and ripped her eyes away from the phone, meeting the teacher's stare. "Uh, I'm-I'm sorry, I just found out, uh, my fish drowned. I need to take a moment," she lied before she rushed out of her seat, running toward the bathroom.

"Her fish drowned?" Topper whispered to himself in the back of the class, sharing confused looks with other students.

Once Cassie made it to the bathroom, there had been a Kook girl she'd seen around before. She had been touching up some of her makeup before she noticed Cassie through the mirror, turning around to face her. "Oh, it's the Pogue lover," the girl commented with a smug look.

"You have about three seconds to get the fuck out of here before I slap all that makeup off your face and drag your ass through the hall," Cassie threatened and the girl's eyes widened, immediately heading toward the door to leave. She knew that Cassie wasn't bluffing.

Cassie hummed to herself, satisfied, before she went to one of the stalls and locked herself in side. She placed the toilet seat down and sat on it, analyzing the picture of the two of them.

Was it real? Or had someone been trying to mess with her? She didn't think she had never seen that photo of the couple before, but it also could have been her mind trying to trick her into thinking they were alive.

She didn't even realize that the chat had been a group one until Kiara had sent a message.

Kiki
WTF is this you???

Cassie felt her heart pang at the girl's name, but didn't type anything once the the unknown number began typing.

Unknown
Is JJ there?

JJ
I'm here Bree

Cassie had also felt her heart twinge at the sight of JJ's name, but ignored it once the unknown number began to type again.

Unknown
Did you pimp my short board?

Cassie felt tears start to well up in her eyes, placing a hand over her mouth and releasing a shocked laugh. She knew it had to be John B. JJ would always try to take his short board out surfing, but John B would never let him.

That meant...He was alive.

John B and and Sarah were alive.

Without thinking, Cassie began to type.

Cassie
What the hell? Where are you guys?

Unknown
Laying super low in Nassau

Nassau? Cassie thought. How did they get to Nassau?

Unknown
Can you clear my name? Wanna come home
Be in touch. P4L

Cassie touched her hand to her mouth again, a few tears falling down her face. Although she hadn't been a Pogue anymore, she wanted nothing more than to help bring John B and Sarah home safe and sound without John B getting thrown in jail.

And that's exactly what she was going to do. To help make sure John B wouldn't be sent to jail.