LIX.   here we go again

Almost a month had passed since they became stranded on Poguelandia and the homesickness Dylan was feeling was getting worse. She dreamed of her family at nights and woke up crying seeing their faces. It was silent cries of course, because she didn't want any of her friends to worry about her. Dylan spend everyday doing the same things: swimming, searching for fish and coconuts, and gathering leaves from the trees for them to drink out of. It was the same routine every day, over and over again, and she could feel herself going crazy inside.

She swam under water with a spear in her hand, her eyes open and she looked around her for fish. JJ and Kiara had been doing good at catching them fish but Dylan figured she'd combine her ability to swim under water with her eyes open with her great catching ability.

Seeing a fish swim at the ocean floor, Dylan quickly lodged the spear through the fish. She quickly swam up and popped her head above the water, gasping for air.

"Hell yeah, she did it!" JJ yelled happily from the bank, his hand shielding his eyes from the blazing sun.

"Good job, DJ!" Kiara shouted with excitement, waving her arms around.

Dylan swam back, keeping hold of the fish and spear, which was harder than she thought.

Hearing the commotion, Pope walked over and he smiled. "Okay Water Bug," he said and covered his eyes as well.

Reaching the shore, she stood on her feet and walked out of the water. Dylan smiled sheepishly. "Thanks." She said and shook her head vigorously, the water from her curls going everywhere.

"Dinner's going to be a feast," said JJ and he followed her to where the other fish lay out of the sun.

She caught his sarcasm. "Oh yeah, we'll be eating like kings." She laughed and dropped the fish onto the pile.

"We'll make King Henry jealous." Pope joked.

Dylan turned to him and laughed slightly. "Funny, funny." She reached down and grabbed the spear. "Alright, I'm going back." She declared and started walking back to the water.

She heard somebody behind her. Pope ran up and joined her side. "Think I can do it, too?" He asked with a playful smile.

"You?" She played along and smiled. "Sure. Probably not as fast as me?"

He scoffed. "Is that right?"

When they were in the water, Dylan looked at him challengingly. "Okay, Hot Shot," she said and passed him the spear, "give me your best shot."

Pope raised his eyebrows. She raised hers back. He half grinned. "Okay." He responded with a slight chuckle. Sucking in a breath, he went under water.

Dylan followed him and kept herself steady. She watched Pope swim around with the spear. If she wasn't busy holding her breath, Dylan would have smiled. His hair was getting longer from not being able to trim it, a look that she personally loved, and he had developed a tan from being in the sun all day.

Pope's eyes widened when he saw a fish and he threw the spear at it but the fish swam away, chasing him to miss.

Dylan felt herself wanting to laugh and she quickly swam back to surface. When she got air in her lungs, she started to laugh, though it came out as more of a wheeze.

Pope came up and shook his head, spraying water everywhere. "Oh, shut up," he said at her laughter and wiped the water off of his face.

"Aww, it's okay." She continued to giggle. "It was a good effort, I'll give you that."

"Oh, you're so generous," he said sarcastically and swan toward her.

"I'm just faster, that's all."

"Yeah okay, Michael Phelps."

Dylan giggled again and splashed water in his face.

The clouds covered the sun for a while, something Dylan was grateful for. Her shoulders were fried red and sore along with the tops of her feet. She never wanted to take a shower so bad in her life. She was lying on her back, covered her sunburnt face, while they all sat around playing a game of truth or dare.

"Okay, John B, your turn. Truth or dare?" Sarah said and tossed John B the hat that they made out of leaves.

"Alright. Alright. Truth." He answered.

"Truth?"

"This is exciting," Cleo said with a slight chuckle.

Sarah smiled at him. "If you could do it all again. . .what would you do different?"

"Oh shit, asking the hard questions." Dylan commented.

"Uhh, get the gold out before Ward did." JJ answered first.

"Maybe hide the cross a little better." Said Pope.

"Yeah, that would have been nice," said his girlfriend, lowering her arm from her eyes.

"Not yell "murderer" at Ward, maybe." Kiara followed with a casual shrug.

"Uhh, steal a couple bottles of rum before we jumped off the boat?" John B stated.

"Yeah, why did you do that, actually?" JJ asked him.

"I don't know, maybe cause I was fighting to the death?"

"Uhhh, kill Rafe and Rose before they drugged and kidnapped me." Dylan answered the question, twirling her finger in the air.

Kiara hummed. "That's a good one."

"I would look both ways before crossing the street," said Cleo, eyeing John B, and they laughed.

"Yeah, my bad. My bad." John B said with a grin.

"Your turn, chief."

He turned to Kiara. "Alright, Kie, truth or dare?" He asked her.

Dylan sat up and crossed one of her legs under her.

He put the leaf hat on her head. Kiara rolled her eyes slightly, Sarah giggling. "Truth."

"All right. Um, if you could go home to your parent's house on Figure Eight this instant. . ." John B started. He paused and glanced at Dylan. "Well, I guess this goes for the both of you. Uh, would you do it?"

"No question," she answered instantly and moved her hair out of her face.

"Yeah, I'm missing the Jennings family right now." Pope agreed with her, glancing her way.

"He's missing the in-laws," JJ commented and laughed causing her to hit him with her foot.

Kiara closed her eyes and thought about it. She shook her head. "No chance."

Sarah pointed at her. "Seconded."

"Hear! Hear!"

While they laughed, Dylan frowned slightly and looked down at the sand. In a way, it was easy for them to say they didn't want to go back home, especially for JJ, Sarah, and John B. But for her, Pope, and Kiara, their parents were most likely worrying themselves to death. It didn't feel right for them to say they'd never go back.

"Okay, Princess Dylan. Your turn." Kiara said and threw the hat at her, hitting her in the head.

"The Little Mermaid over here," Cleo remarked and she giggled.

Dylan put the hat on her head. "Uhhh, I guess I'll pick truth." She said.

"Boringggg." JJ sang and she flipped him off.

"Okay, um. . ." Kiara thought. "What's your biggest regret?"

John B oohed under his breath. Dylan blinked. "Uhhh," she thought about it. Sure there was many minor things she regretted when it came to how they ended up on the island, but she tried to think bigger. "Maybe, uh, not telling Braxton what we were doing before left." She answered, the tone in her voice changing.

The others frowned. "I'm sorry, DJ," Sarah said sadly.

The corner of her mouth turned up into a slight smile.

"Jesus, way to bring the mood down, D." Said JJ, trying to lift her mood.

The group of friends started laughing. Dylan rolled her eyes. "Okay, chaos junkie, your turn." She said and threw him the hat. "Truth or dare?"

"I mean, do you even have to ask, my love?" He said and out the hat on his head.

Dylan looked at the others, raising her eyebrows for help. Kiara pointed the knife she was holding to the cliff. "Big jump. Nobody's done it yet."

"Oh, that's perfect." Dylan said, throwing up her hands. "Let's go, blondie."

"Alright, challenge expected." The  blonde declared and quickly got up.

"Oh, this should be great," Pope said and they all stood up.

They grabbed each other's hands. Everyone stood by and watched JJ climb all the way up the cliff until they saw his blonde hair blowing in the wind. "There he is," spoke John B.

"You got this, JJ!" Dylan yelled encouragingly while they all started cheering.

"Send it!" Yelled Pope.

"He's not gonna do it!" Cleo declared.

"Oh, he's going to do it!" Dylan rebuked and let go of Pope'd hand to cup them around her mouth. "You better do it, baby boy!"

"He's not gonna do it!"

"Oh, I won't, huh?" JJ yelled back challengingly.

"He's gonna do it. It's highly dangerous, uh, zero reward? Yeah, he's doing it." Pope declared.

"Beautiful way of putting it, baby." Dylan agreed and nodded.

Cheering again, JJ yelled into the open air and jumped off the cliff, doing a flip in the air and he landed in the water.

"YES!" Dylan exclaimed happily. "That's my boy!"

Cheering like crazy, the group of Pogues rushed to the ocean, their cheers echoing off of each other.

JJ came running out of the way proud of himself. The boys ran into him, hugging his wet body. "You did it!" Dylan said with a laugh and she hugged him.

"Damn right I did it
!" He yelled in her ear over the excitement. "I actually thought I was gonna die."

"I'm next!" She proclaimed and ran out of the water.

Pope's eyes widened. "Wait, Dylan, hold on!" He ran after her.

John B started to cackle. "Oh hell yeah!"

"Let's go, baby girl!" Cleo encouraged while cheering into her hands.

"Dylan, wait for me!" The boyfriend continued to call as he followed after her.

Dylan was woken up by someone shaking her. "Dylan, baby, wake up!" She didn't register that it was Pope for a second. "DJ, it's a plane. Guys, guys, wake up, there's a plane!"

She groaned and opened her eyes. "What? What's happening?" She asked groggily. Through her squinted eyes, she saw Pope run off. "Pope, what are you doing?"

He was in too much of a hurry to answer.

Dylan rubbed her eyes again and got up, her back popping in the process. She quickly ran and followed him. "P, wait up! What's going on?" She yelled.

"There's a plane! Do you hear it?"

At the information, Dylan looked up at the sky. She saw the outline of an airplane and then she heard the engine. Her eyes widened. "Holy shit, a plane!" She ran faster and saw that he was sprinting to the path where the cliff was.

"Come on! Come on!" He yelled at her.

The couple climbed their way up the pathway to the all of the cliffs. "What's the plan, P?" She asked him while running behind him.

"We're going to make a fire so they'll see the smoke," Pope answered and finally got to the edge of the cliff. He dropped to his knees and took out the lighter. He flicked it open, his hands shaking. "Come on, please light."

"Here, here," she insisted and quickly crouched next to him. She cupped her hands. "Okay, try again. Try again." She quickly said.

Pope flicked the lighter a couple of times until it lit up. "Okay, it's lit."

"Go on." Dylan said, putting her hand on his back and she looked to the sky again, still seeing the plane. "Come on. Come on."

"It's going. It's going!" He gasped when the leaves and twigs lit on fire and started growing on the tree limbs.

"Yes!" She praised and stood up. "HEY!" Dylan yelled and started waving her hands. "Please! Please!"

"Over here! We're over here!" Pope matched her energy and they started jumping.

"Hey!"

"Hey, we're down here! Hey!"

"Please, help us! Hey!"

The smoke got larger but the plane started to fly behind the clouds. Dylan's face fell. "What? No!"

Pope started panting. "Please." He begged.

"Please, please." Dylan closed her eye. "Come on, I don't ever ask for anything. Please help us."

Then suddenly, there was another swooshing sound of the engine. "Look, he's turning around. Baby, he's turning around!" Pope yelled with a big smile.

She reopened her eyes and saw that he was right. "He sees us." She observed and gasped. "He sees us!"

"Yeah!" They both cheered and jumped into each other. "We did, P!"

"Come on, let's go!" Pope sat her down and grabbed onto her hand.

The couple sprinted as far as their legs could carry them. They climbed down the path and Dylan saw the others running in the direction of the pond. Running faster, she saw the plane and when she got closer, she saw that it was a fishing plane.

"We did it!" Pope cheered again victoriously.

A man came out of the boat. "Hey, there." He greeted them.

"Hello, hello," said John B.

"Whoo!" Pope continued and shook his friend by the shoulders. "Hey! We're getting out of here. We're finally getting out of here."

Cleo did the same thing with her. "Good job up there, baby girl!" She raised and shook her shoulders.

"Well, what do we have here?" The plane driver observed the group of teenagers.

"Uhh," said John B. "You know, just some castaways." He said casually.

"Well, I'll just cross that off the grocery list."

Dylan caught the disappointment that crossed both JJ and Kiara's faces. They didn't want to leave, she knew that.

"Now hang on, I got just the thing for y'all," the plane driver said and went back into the plane.

John B saw Sarah's face. "Hey, no. Look at this guy!"

"Two things you need on a deserted island—"

"You think he works for your dad?"

Sarah looked completely uneasy. Dylan's eyes shifted between her and the unnamed plane driver.

"First aid and rum!" The guy explained and held up a bottle and a first aid kit. "Incoming." He said and tossed the bottle at him.

They moved back and the bottle of rum fell into the puddle. "Nobody drink that." Dylan stated strictly.

Then he tossed the first aid kit to Pope. "So what's the story? You guys sank a boat?"

"Uhh, jumped off one. Her dad's." John B simplified, causing Sarah to give him a look.

"In-laws, man," the plane driver laughed. "They're tough."

She gave him another hard stare. Dylan went over and put her hand on Sarah's back.

"Well, have no fear. Jimmy's here. I got you."

"Well, all hail Jimmy, guys!" Said Cleo and threw up her arms. "Let's go."

"Welcome aboard the Flying Fish, y'all. I'm Jimmy Portis, I'll be your captain today."

"Come on, babe." Pope said quietly and grabbed her hand, leading her to the plane.

"Is this all? Six of you?"

"Uh, yeah. That too heavy?" John B questioned.

"Nah. . .uh, technically maybe, but I think old Dish here'll probably be okay."

"Are you sure? Cause the average plane's weight capacity is 12,500 pounds or less." Dylan stated quickly, finding herself squeezing Pope's hand tighter.

Jimmy laughed and pointed at her. "You're a smart little lady. But, uh, we can always throw someone overboard right?" He joked.

She glanced behind her at JJ and Kiara, both hesitant to get on the plane. Dylan held her hand out to Kiara, the girl hesitating but then slowly taking it.

"There we go. Go on ahead," Jimmy said and went to help them in.

"We got it." Kiara spoke cautiously and climbed in behind Dylan.

Dylan observed the inside of the plane. It was tiny as expected and loaded with cargo and a ton of fishing nets. She sat close to Pope between him and JJ. "So what were you doing all the way out here?" JJ asked the driver, pointing his body towards him.

"I got a little guide outfit on Saint Vincent. I was spotting fish," Jimmy explained.

"What were you spotting?"

"You know, the usual," the driver answered too casually for Dylan's liking. "Wahoo."

Immediately, her, John B, and JJ looked at each other. She'd been going fish since she was a toddler, her father and Big John catching literally every fish known to man in Kildare. Wahoo fish don't run in September, it was almost always in November.

Once again, they'd run into danger.

As the plane took off in the air and Jimmy was listening to the radio through his head set, the group of Pogues scooted closer together. "Wahoo don't run in September. Ever." JJ spoke her thoughts quietly. "So whoever this man is, he's not a fishermen."

"Maybe the run just starts earlier out here," Pope suggested.

"Are you sure about that? In the Caribbean?"

Dylan shook her head. "Wahoo run in the Caribbean from October to December," she educated while trying to keep calm.

"No, I know what this is." Sarah stated and they looked at her. "He's working for my dad, and he's probably been looking for us the entire time."

"Of course." Dylan exasperated and rubbed her face stressfully.

"All right, we gotta find out," said JJ. "Uh, start looking for some sort of. . .clues."

Eyeing Jimmy's satchel, he gave John B a look that he understood. John B distracted him. "Hey, Jimmy. How long you had this bird?"

"Oh, about ten years now." Jimmy answered loudly.

JJ sneakily reached inside satchel and pulled out a book and photos. Dylan read the cover: The Loss of El Dorado.

"And, uh, what about that beautiful girl right there?" John B continued to distract him.

"Huh? Oh, that? That's Stacey."

JJ pulled a photo and he saw that it was Ward's boat. He showed it to Sarah. Her face went grey when she realized.

"Oh my god," Dylan uttered and started to feel sick. "What do we do?"

The plane started to rock. "Hey, y'all better hold onto something. We got some unexpected turbulence up here!" Jimmy yelled at them.

"Guys, whatever it is, it's happening fast. Look." Kiara told them when she saw out the window.

Dylan turned around and looked out the glass, seeing the island they were coming up on.

"That looks like Barbados. I've been there with Terrance." Cleo observed.

"Okay, there's six of us, one of him," JJ started to say. "You know my vote. We storm the cockpit."

Dylan gave him a look. "JJ, we are in the air!" She whispered yelled.

"Yeah, who's gonna fly the plane, dumbass?" John B matched her tone.

"I've seen Pope fly simulators."

"I-I crop-dusted for my uncle last summer but this is not the same thing." Pope told them.

"We don't have time to pretend that's a real option." Kiara said sternly.

"Do you have an idea?" JJ directed to her.

"Something safe!"

"Let's just wait until he lands the plane and then we can come up with something." Dylan thought of, it being the only safe opinion they had.

"Yeah, then we can speak out and if somebody comes to mess with us, we mad-dog them." Pope added on.

The others agreed. "I like the mad-dogging part." Said JJ.

Dylan nodded. "Figured you would."

"Just put that back." Kiara whispered, referring to the books and photos. "Put it back. Be cool."

JJ silently signaled for John B to distract Jimmy again. "Hey, Jimmy. Is that Burning Man? Right there?"

Dylan watched JJ carefully open the satchel and try to put the back back in. The anxiety she was feeling started to build up. Hurry up, JJ. When Jimmy caught him, she suddenly felt like she was in a horror movie.

"Hey man, what the hell are you doing?" Jimmy tried grabbing him and jerked the wheel of the plane.

Everyone started yelling. Dylan grabbed onto one of the nets to keep herself from toppling over.

"Fly the plane!" Kiara yelled when she realized Jimmy had let go of the wheel.

He fought JJ for the book. "It's my book! Give it back!"

"Who are you really?!"

"JJ, give him the book!" Dylan yelled over the screaming.

"Please fly the plane. Please fly the plane." Pope panicked.

When she saw that the plane was directly flying toward the water, Dylan released a scared cry and she grabbed onto whatever was close to her which happened to be Pope's torso. "Oh my god, we're going to die!" She panicked.

"Hold on! Hold on!" Sarah screamed.

Dylan shut her eyes tightly and prepared for the worst. When she felt the plane hit the water, she instantly reached for her friends and she grabbed a hold of Sarah. The impact knocked them everywhere around in the plane until they all toppled onto each other, the plane now fully in the water.

Not me forgetting about my #1 couple of all time