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𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝘄𝗼: 𝗺𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗹

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Once John B had docked the boat at the nearest Coast Guard station, the Pogues made their way over to try to tell someone they found a boat. However, the place seemed to be jam packed with angry adults already yelling at the Coast Guards.

"Excuse me?" John B tried to interrupt as he walked over to a Coast Guardsman dealing with a worried husband and wife. JJ followed behind with Cassie behind him, crossing her arms.

"Uh, we found a boat," JJ raised his finger.

"You're gonna wanna hear — You're gonna wanna hear us," John B tried again.

"Hey!" The Coast Guardsman shouted, holding a hand up in John B's face. "Just calm down."

"Last time I checked we were fucking calm," Cassie responded as she grew angry from his shut down, rolling her eyes. Why was it that authority never took teenagers seriously?

The Coast Guardsman looked over at her, raising his brows. "Excuse me miss?"

"You heard me. I said, we were—" Kiara quickly clasped her hand over Cassie's mouth, shutting her up before she could go any further. Cassie shoved Kiara's arm away, turning to give her friend an exasperated look. "What the hell was that?"

"I don't need you cursing out the Coast Guard, Cece," Kiara pointed out and Cassie went to go argue before she paused and nodded, knowing Kiara was right.

"Well, that went well," Pope commented sarcastically.

"So...what's the plan?" JJ asked, leaning on John B's shoulder.

"I think I know how we're gonna find the guy who owns that boat," John B said, shaking the motel key in his hand.

"No, no, no. We don't know whose room that is. It could belong to anyone," Pope argued as JJ took the motel key out of John B's hand.

"I'm in," JJ and Cassie immediately said at the same time, making them whip their heads toward each other accusingly. "I said it first!" They both said again, making their eyes both widen at one another.

"You're doing it on purpose!" Cassie complained, pointing at him.

"No, I'm not, you are!" JJ exclaimed back, pointing back at her.

"Please stop acting like children," John B pleaded, shutting his eyes in annoyance as Kiara nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, that just made me more uneasy than I already am," Pope sighed, blinking rapidly at the two of them.

"Come on," Kiara said to Pope as JJ tossed her the motel key, prompting her to start walking back to the HMS Pogue with Cassie by her side. "We'll be lookout."

"Finders fee. Just sayin'. And, hey, at least you'll only be an accomplice," John B assured Pope as he walked past him.

"Man," Pope breathed out, following behind them all.

"Come on, bubba."

The Pogues hopped back onto the HMS Pogue, taking it out to the motel that the key belonged to. When they arrived, John B slowed down as they took in the appearance of the place.

Trees were blown everywhere, signs had been knocked down, and it almost looked like the motel was going to collapse if someone shut a door the wrong way. Cassie pursed her lips together, feeling bad that many people on The Cut had to live like this while she lived on Figure Eight, perfectly fine.

And all of a sudden, she felt more out of place than she already was once she remembered there were three Pogues on the tiny boat with her. She always felt out of place, whether that be with Kooks or Pogues. She didn't know when she would start to feel...included.

JJ whistled. "I thought the Château looked bad."

"This place is a shitshow," John B insulted.

"Motel or meth lab?" Kiara joked darkly.

"You be the judge," Pope replied.

"I wonder if we'll find Walter and Jesse then," Cassie commented even though she had never actually watching Breaking Bad in its entirety. Her father used to watch it and while she ate or studied, she would hear it playing in the living room.

"Hey, I understand that reference," Pope said to the girl with a grin and she nodded back at him, glad her joke didn't fall on deaf ears.

"Doesn't look like the type of place somebody with a Grady-White stays," John B pointed out.

"No, it looks like the type of place someone with a Grady-White would get killed," Pope retorted.

"Now I know where to lure JJ when I wanna murder him. Thanks, Pope," Cassie grinned innocently and Pope pursed his lips together, looking at JJ apologetically.

"You're acting as if I'd even go anywhere with you alone. I'd rather get stabbed in both my eyes," JJ replied.

"Can I stab you one more time for extra measure?" Cassie asked with wide eyes and JJ just scoffed at her, shaking his head in annoyance.

Kiara lightly smacked Cassie's arm, earning a confused look from the blonde. "Cool it," Kiara mouthed to her, and Cassie just held her hands up in defense.

"All right, here we go. This is your captain speaking. HMS Pogue comin' in for landing," JJ narrated before he jumped off the boat and onto the long grass. "Whoo!"

"We good?" John B asked him as JJ tied the rope attached to the boat to make sure it didn't drift off.

"Yeah, we good."

"All right. Here goes nothin'," John B shrugged.

"Hey," Pope halted him.

"Yeah?"

"Don't let him do anything stupid," Pope pointed at JJ.

"Oh, we will," JJ said nonchalantly and Cassie rolled her eyes at him, even though she shouldn't really be saying anything. She always ended up doing stupid shit that got her in trouble.

"I'm not making promises," John B shook his head.

"Yeah, I know," Pope muttered, giving up as he walked to the other side of the boat.

"Uh, be careful," Kiara said awkwardly to John B, handing him the motel key slowly so that their fingers brushed. Cassie arched a brow slightly at that, a small grin growing on her face. "I mean it," Kiara added.

John B glanced away before he chuckled, "Yeah. Yeah." He then patted JJ on the shoulder, hopping over a log. "Let's go."

"What the hell was that?" Cassie questioned her friend quietly once the boys had left, moving closer to her so Pope couldn't hear even though he probably most definitely could.

Kiara gave her a look. "What was what?"

"Don't play dumb. You know what I'm talking about."

Kiara scoffed at her. "I don't actually, so if you could enlighten me that'd be great."

Cassie groaned, looking back over at Pope who quickly looked away so he wasn't caught eavesdropping. She then looked back over at Kiara, who was awaiting her answer impatiently. "You and John B. You seemed...pretty worried about him today and just before. A little too worried."

"Of course I'm worried about him, he's my friend," Kiara reasoned.

"Okay, but, like, a different kind of worry." Cassie began to hold her hands up around her face, getting dramatic as she voiced, "The worry you get when you want someone so bad and if they do anything risky, you can't imagine what life may be like without them."

"Oh, give me a break. It's not like that," Kiara tried to argue.

Cassie shrugged, dropping her hands. "If you want some of that John D, you don't gotta be embarrassed by it."

"There's literally no way you just said that," Kiara shook her head at her, her eyes wide. "I'm gonna pretend you didn't."

"Hey, I was proud of coming up with that!" Cassie exclaimed, watching as the Carrera girl spun around to face Pope who was still pretending not to listen to their conversation.

"Hey, Pope," Kiara said to the boy, wanting to exit the conversation she was just having with her best friend.

Pope took that as an excuse to look back at the girls. "Hey, Kie," he responded, not knowing what was happening.

"Ask me a question."

"Ask you a question? Why?"

Kiara shrugged. "To pass the time. And so I don't have to talk to her right now," she said, gesturing to Cassie.

Cassie scoffed, "You bitch." Kiara just sent her a teasing grin back.

Pope glanced between the two girls nervously, trying to come up with a question to ask Kiara. "Umm...biggest pet peeve?" He asked, not wanting to ask something too personal or too stupid.

"Biggest pet peeve?" Kiara repeated.

"Yeah."

"Easy. Giving one percent to the environment," Kiara answered.

"What's wrong with that?" Pope genuinely queried.

"We only have one Earth, Pope. We should be giving it 100% bare minimum," Kiara explained.

"I feel like that's not really a pet peeve. I feel like that's a lot bigger than a pet peeve," Cassie pointed out, thinking about it as she looked up at the sky.

"Yeah. That's also not fiscally sound," Pope added.

"Neither is destroying the only planet that we have to live on."

"Hey, hey, cops," Pope quickly told the girls once he saw a cop car pull up, making them spin around to see the cop car with two cops inside.

"Shit," Kiara cursed as the three of them started to crouch down in the boat.

"Call them."

"I can't. Towers are down," Kiara reminded him as they slowly got off the boat and onto the grass, still crouched.

"If I lose my merit scholarship, I'm gonna kill someone," Pope uttered.

"Can it be JJ?" Cassie asked excitedly as the three hid behind the large motel sign that had fell.

"Maybe they're not going up there. Maybe they're just...maybe they're just looking for a room," Pope reasoned.

"Look, he's pointing! They're going up!" Kiara whisper-shouted as they watched the motel owner point to the exact room John B and JJ were in.

"We have to warn them, come on!" Cassie urged as she jogged over to the part of the motel that JJ and John B were in, looking up at the window that indicated the room was there.

"Okay, we gotta do something. Do something!" Kiara told Pope as he panted.

Pope picked up a rock, catching his breath. "Stand back."

"Okay. You got it," Kiara told him before he threw the rock. It basically went five feet in front of them, not doing anything to help the boys upstairs. "Didn't you ever play baseball? Dude!"

"I was on the math team!" Pope argued.

"So? You're still a dude!" Cassie told him. She didn't want to stereotype or anything, but she assumed that all guys were built with some type of ability to throw a rock more than five feet.

"I was mathlete!" Pope reiterated through clenched teeth.

"A mathlete?" Kiara repeated as she picked up some rocks on the ground.

"You know what?" Pope responded before he stopped himself, breathing out frustratedly.

Kiara tried throwing the rock at the window, but ended up missing terribly. "See! You can't do it either!" Pope whisper-shouted.

"Oh, jeez, just give it to me!" Cassie said, ripping the rock from out of Kiara's hand. She quickly threw the rock, hitting the window so it made a tapping sound. "Now was that so hard?"

"Let's just hope they hear it," Kiara said worriedly as they waited to see if John B or JJ peered through the window.

And when John B did, they started mouthing to them that the cops were coming. They watched as John B disappeared from the window. "Go back to the boat. Go back to the boat!" Pope urged and the three of them ran back to the boat, not wanting to get caught by the cops.

"Should we peel?" Kiara questioned once they made it back, sitting in the captain's seat.

"You never leave a Pogue behind," Pope told her and Cassie glanced at him, wondering if that was truly one of their mottos.

"No, seriously, should we peel?" Kiara asked again when they saw the cops right at the door to the room.

Pope looked back at her, thinking about it. "Maybe."

"Wait, what the fuck?" Cassie blurted out, pointing once she saw John B and JJ standing on the side of the building, their bodies pressed up against the wall so they weren't caught and so they didn't fall.

Pope's eyes widened before he started waving his hands at them. "What are you guys doing?" He mouthed.

Kiara placed her head in her hands. "Oh, my God."

John B and JJ held a finger up to their mouths, smiles on their faces as they told them to be quiet. "Are they fucking stupid? Why are they staying there?" Cassie rhetorically inquired, squinting her eyes to see if she had been missing something.

But all of a sudden, JJ dropped something and it had landed on the metal below, causing it to clatter loudly. The Pogues' eyes widened before they saw one of the cops open the blinds up, prompting Cassie, Kiara, and Pope to turn around and pretend to be engaged in conversation.

Cassie subtly glanced over her shoulder, watching as the cop slowly retreated by the window, not catching them. "I think we're good."

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

"Well, that was fun," JJ spoke back on the boat as they sailed away from the motel before he laughed. "Could have warned us a little sooner."

"We would've, except Pope was on the math team," Kiara told him.

"You were on the math team?" John B asked him in surprise.

"The cops took everything like it was a crime scene. Did you guys find anything?" Pope changed the subject, not wanting to talk about the math team.

"Did we find anything? No, I don't think so." JJ then pulled out a wad of cash and a gun. "Oh, yeah, we did."

"What the hell?!" Pope exclaimed frantically.

"Is that real?" Cassie asked in awe, her eyes going wide at the sight of the gun. She hadn't seen someone hold a gun before other than a cop, so seeing JJ hold it was a whole new experience for her.

"Dude, what?" Kiara voiced in concern.

"Dude, chill. Come on," JJ said to Pope, getting up to go over to him.

"Why would you take that from a crime scene?" Pope interrogated.

"It's better than the cops having it!" JJ argued.

"Is it though?" Cassie muttered under her breath, not knowing if they could even trust JJ with the gun. She knew she couldn't, but she just wondered about what the others thought since they knew him better.

Kiara looked at John B. "Are you serious?" She said to him, making his smile drop immediately once he saw the serious expression on her face. Cassie snorted at that, earning a look from the Carrera girl.

"I'm gonna lose my merit scholarship," Pope immediately assumed.

"Hey, hey, hey. Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh," JJ shushed him with the gun up to his lips, putting his arm around Pope's shoulder. "At least you have us, right?"

Pope pushed the blonde away. "I'm living the nightmare."

Once they made it back on land at Geechie's, they settled down before they saw Lana Grubbs crying over a dead body. "Who's that?" John B asked no one in particular.

"It's Scooter Grubbs. He was out during the storm," Peeler, the girl they were sitting with, answered. "Check out this pic I got. Dead boday. Insane." She started showing the Pogues around her the picture she had taken of the body, almost like she was proud she was able to have it.

"Don't you think it's a little disrespectful to have that picture on your phone?" Cassie snapped, narrowing her eyes at the girl as she avoided looking at the photo. Even since her father had passed, the topic of death had been a bit of a sore subject for her. And she knew that if someone had a picture of her father's body and had been showing it around to people, she would have been upset.

Peeler shrugged. "Well, he's dead. He can't do anything about it."

"That doesn't make it right," Cassie told her, starting to get angry before Kiara placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. Cassie turned to her and watched as Kiara slowly shook her head, making Cassie nod slowly in defeat as she tried to calm herself down.

JJ watched the interaction curiously before he looked back at Peeler. "What kind of boat did he have?" The blonde asked.

"Somehow, that dirtbag copped a brand-new Grady-White," she said, making them all look over at her. "Everyone's out looking for it."

John B looked over at JJ, who then looked over at Pope, who then looked over at Kiara, who then looked over at Cassie, all thinking the same thing: Oh shit.

authors note!
i love writing the early scenes with
the pogues since i didn't get to do that
with "brutal" bc kyla joined late hehe.
their chemistry in s1 is so good 😭💔