CLEO CALLED THEM TO TELL THEM SHE FOUND POPE. Well, they gave her Leo's phone number since he was the only one with a device at the moment, and she called him from one of the phones on a boat that she and the Heyward boy snuck onto. She said they were safe and that he did not end up killing Rafe, which was all they needed to know.

So, JJ, Bree, and Leo were walking down the sidewalk as the sun began to set. It was not as awkward as she had thought it would be, and Leo was being weirdly cool about everything. He and JJ had talked a little bit on their adventure, so it was a pleasant walk home. Bree sighed as she avoided a crack in the sidewalk. "I'm so sorry I pulled you into all of this. You can probably go home now. It should be safe."

"Eh, it's okay," he answered, waving her off, and JJ reached over to feel his forehead. He must be coming down with something if he thought that everything that he gone through that day was okay. A normal per "There's nothing waiting for me there."

"What about your parents? How long are they gone for?" she quizzed, but the face that he made at the question made her regret it. She had assumed that they were off on some business trip or vacation, but now, she knew that wasn't so.

"Forever. I lied," he answered, and both of the Pogues looked over at hm. JJ had been kicking a rock down the road, but he now gave the boy his full attention, which was something Bree had almost never seen him do. "Well, technically, I didn't lie. I said they were never home, and they aren't. Because they're dead."

The Calloway girl nodded slowly. "Oh."

"Yeah, sorry, I made it weird," he winced, and Bree felt bad for her short response. Despite the fact that she was in a slightly similar situation and had explain that to people multiple times, she had no clue what to say. She didn't even know what she watned people to say her whnen she informed them of her abandonment.

She rubbed his arm, and despite the fact taht it was really not the time, the sight made JJ's blood boil. His eyes lingered on their skin touching as she assured Leo, "You didn't, and if it makes you feel any better, our parents are gone too."

"Yeah, my dad's God-knows-where, and her mom's AWOL too," JJ added, and he let out a breath that he did not even know he was holding when the girl's hand dropped back to her side. He clapped his hands together. "Anyway, that's enough of the sad talk. I'm hungry."

"JJ, we have absolutely no money whatsoever," Bree reminded him. They were broke as hell, and she was not going to let him steal them anything. She hated when he did that.

Leo raised his hand, causing them both to look over at him as he sug his wallet out of the back pocket of his jeans. He announced, "I have some. Dinner's on me."

"No, absolutely not," she responded. He did not owe them at all. If anything, they owed him a lot. At the beginning of the day, he was just a normal guy living in his normal house. "You spent your day getting shot at and running around chasing someone you don't even know because of me."

"Bree, I've never felt that much of a rush ever. I should be thanking you for adding some action into my pointless existence. Let me pay for dinner," he insisted.

JJ smiled and pointed his fingers at the boy. "I'm starting to like this guy."

They ate, stopped by Leo's place, and ended back up at JJ's house to chill and hang out. He wouldn't admit it, but Bree was pretty sure he wanted to spend as much time there as he could before he was permanently evicted. They were chilling and drinking some beers when the fucking Twinkie pulled up the house.

"What's he doing here?" Bree asked, and JJ shrugged. He had disappeared yet again and neglected to inform them of what the hell was going on, even after they got mad at him the last time. The two stood up and headed toward the door, and Leo trailed behind them, lingering on the porch.

"Well, look who it is. Nice of you to show up," the Maybank boy called to his friend as he got out of the car. They stopped a few yards away from him, and the blonde boy waited for an explanation. "You gonna spill the beans? You gonna tell us the truth about what's going on?"

John B sighed, glancing back and forth between them with an apologetic expression. They had literally been by his side through pretty much everything ever since that first day when they found the sunken boat, and he was lying to them about what he was doing with his dad. "Look, I know I've been a little shady. And stretched the truth a little bit."

"Yeah, that's called lying," Bree informed him.

He shot her look, but even he knew that it was fair. He took a deep breath before revealing, "My dad killed two guys. He was trying to protect me. It was the guys from the Coastal Venture. They came here looking for Denmark's diary."

"Your dad capped them for that," JJ replied, and he seemed to be processing everything that his best friend had just said. Bree was doing the same, her eyebrows furrowed and head tilted, wondering what the hell he was talking about and when this happened.

"Yes, and then Singh showed up. They took my dad, and then they tried to kill me. They took him to South America," he announced, and Bree's eyes went wide. South America? That was really far away and really not easy to get to. He then seemed to notice that Leo was standing behind Bree. "Who the fuck is this kid?"

JJ waved him off, trying to continue the conversation as soon as possible. "That's Leo. He's cool. South America?" But the Routledge boy just began to rant as he spoke, clearly freaking out because he really needed their help.

"John B, stop! Just breathe for a second," Bree told him, trying to get him to calm down. He needed to be in the right state of mind if they were going to come up with a plan.

He exhaled, "I don't know what to do, guys. How the hell do we get to South America?"

"No clue. But... we're gonna figure it out," JJ responded, and he went over and wrapped his arm around his friend as they sat down on the steps. The blonde boy then shot Bree a look, and she headed over to the other side of John B and did the same. She rested her head on his shoulder and tried to be comforting.

"I really hate to interrupt this moment, but that was, like, a lot," Leo pointed out awkwardly. He wasn't sure if they were expecting him to come with them or if they didn't want him. He was definitely not aware of anything that had happened with them before that day other than that they were stuck on an island for a month. "So, what's happening?"

JJ sighed and looked up at him with raised eyebrows, clapping his hands together. He responded, "Well, your options here are: one, you go home and forget all of this ever happened, or two, go on a possibly life-threatening trip to South America."

"Hold up, who the hell is this guy?" John B asked once again, shaking off his nerves to try and figure out if he just spilled everything to this random kid that they did not even know. Technically, he was kind of a random kid that they didn't know, but he had been through a lot that day.

Bree was still surprised that JJ invited him to come with them, and she responded, "Rafe shot at me and him today, and he's kinda just been hanging out ever since."

"Rafe what?" John B exclaimed, and they just sighed and shook their heads at him, letting him know that he had missed more than they were able to explain at the moment. So, he just sighed and looked up. "All right, so Leo, what do you say? We could use all the help we could get."

"Well, I always wanted to go to South America."

《✵》

ALL JOHN B KNEW WHAT THAT HIS DAD WAS SOMEWHERE IN SOUTH AMERICA. That meant that he could be anywhere from Venezuela to the bottom of Argentina, which was a lot of ground to cover. They headed to the place that John B had last seen his father, which was at this dude Sowell's house. JJ raided the fridge while the rest of them searched, and they found a newspaper clipping that told them the name of an expedition guide, Neville Persaud, who had gone on a trip to Orinoco with Sowell.

JJ then informed them that he knew a guy named Persaud, and he brought them to this spot outside of town to try and find Neville. This led to them almost getting killed, but they found him and explained their situation to him. He told them what he knew about Orinoco and his trip, which gave them a good idea of where to go and all. They almost died again when some guy jumped on the boat and shot at them, but they escaped.

Which brought them to Kie's parents' anniversary party. Sarah was going to be there, meaning that they could grab both girls and explain everything that was going on. They were both dressed all fancy, looking just like they did a year before, when everything was normal, except Bree wasn't in there with them. John B headed over to the blonde girl, and the other three went to talk to Kie. "Psst! Psst!"

"What?" the girl muttered, looking around until her eyes landed on them. They were standing on the dock, and there was a gate between them and her. She approached them and furrowed her eyebrows when she saw Leo. "Who the hell is this guy?"

"Hi, I'm Leo," he answered, and he seemed to be in some sort of trance. He looked really weird and really nervous, and he had the biggest smile on his face as he outstretched his hand for her to take.

Weirdly enough, the Carrera girl acted the same as he did, and googly eyed and dreamy. She held onto his hand for a strangely long time, and JJ and Bree exchanged looks. Kie breathed out, almost laughing, "Hi."

"Anyway..." the Maybank boy interrupted, and the two finally stopped shaking hands. "Look, long story short, we're mounting a full search and rescue mission right now because Big John got nabbed."

"What do you mean, 'got nabbed'?"Kie asked in confusion.

JJ seemed caught off guard, and it was kind of weird that she was confused about that when he had used the terminology before. Was her Pogue vocabulary fading after having been away from them so long? "Like, actually nabbed. Uh, snatched, kidnapped, abducted, that kind of thing. To South America by Singh. So we have to get down there as soon as we can."

"South America? Right now?" the Carrera girl exclaimed, and Bree had to admit that it was an insane thing to ask her when she just got back home and into a normal rhythm.

The brunette sighed, trying to make it seem not as bad when it really was absolutely crazy. But there used to be a time when they could just wave Kie over to them, and she would drop everything. "Yeah, we know. It's a long shot, but we're making a plan right now."

"Okay, yeah, let's just go to South America," Kie agreed sarcastically, scrunching her nose up and tilting her head over exaggeratedly. Leo just stood there awkwardly because he had no authority to try and convince her or anything.

"So is that a no? Okay, so you're saying you don't wanna be a part of the plan when Big John is up for execution right now?" JJ asked, and when there was no answer, he nodded slowly backing away. "Okay, cool. That's a no."

As they walked back down the dock, she yelled after them, "I can't!"

They went back to their boat and met up with John B on the way, and he informed them that Sarah had cheated on him with Topper fucking Thornton. That made it abundantly clear that neither she nor Kie was going to come with them, and they were just going to have to deal with it. They were about to get back in the boat when the Routledge boy spotted Topper hugging Sarah, and he snapped.

The other three watched with nervous expressions as he walked down the dock and shoved the boy. Sarah stepped in the way and tried to get him to stop, but then, he turned around and punched the boy so the ground. There were gasps and yelling throughout the crowd, and Bree immediately flew out of the boat, the two boys on her heels.

Mr. Carrera was the first to jump in, but Topper was already unconscious. It did not take long for Leo and JJ to grab John B and pull him off of the boy. Kie's dad was getting aggressive, and Bree turned around and yelled, "Get the fuck off of him!"
"What the hell, Bree?" Kie shouted back, but the brunette girl ignored her. She was too busy pushing the three boys down the dock and back to the boat while everyone yelled and got help for Topper.

They fled the scene quickly in their tiny boat, but they slowed back down once they were far enough away. They weren't advancing in the plan until tomorrow, so they kind of just floated in the boat for the time being. John B and Leo were talking in the back while Bree and JJ sat in the front. The Maybank boy breathed out, "How did everything get so fucked up? I mean, Kie and Sarah are Kooks again."

"Don't say that," she told him. He knew better than to call his friends Kooks. Bree understood. Kie wanted to be back with her parents for just a little bit and try to go back to normal before everything inevitably went to shit. She was still mad at Sarah, though. It was one thing to hang out with Topper because she had nowhere to stay, but it was a whole different thing to hook up with him. "They're trying to have a normal life."

"How is it that they've been through everything with us and now want to have a normal life, and that dumbass cross country runner over there left his normal life to go to South America with us?" JJ asked, and they looked over at the boy in the back who had dropped his driver's license on the ground and was struggling to pick it up.

John B was sitting there and laughing at him, and he reached down to grab it for him. However, he was unable to pick it up as well. The two watching them began giggling in amusement at the sight before turning back to each other. She sighed, "It's not the end of the world. At least we have each other."

"Yeah, at least we have that," he confirmed. The silence between them made them suddenly aware of the fact that he was kind of really close. His arm was on the seat behind her, and he was facing her and leaning in a little bit. His thigh was touching her knee, and the contact made it feel like her leg was on fire.

Her eyes were locked on his, and she was holding her breath. He seemed to be getting closer, leaning in, or maybe she was leaning in. She wasn't totally sure. She just knew that she felt drawn to him, something she had not experienced in a hot minute. His nose brushed hers ever so slightly, and...

"Hey, can you guys not make out in front of a guy who just got cheated on, please?" John B called from the back of the boat, and the two of them jumped apart, making awkward eye contact before looking down at their hands.