POGUELANDIA COULD BE DESCRIBED WITH ONE WORD — PARADISE. They had been there for an entire month, judging by Pope's count of the days. It had been a month of sipping coconuts on the beach and living the Gilligan's Island life. The only downside was that they had no sunscreen, so they were all burnt to a crisp.

Bree was sitting on the beach with Kie, teaching her how to make a spear so that they could go with JJ to find some fish to kill. They had been living on coconuts, so they were finally trying to get some protein. As she wrapped some seaweed around the rock to tie it to a stick, the Carrera girl questioned, "Hey, what's up with you and JJ? None of us have said anything, but things have been weird between you guys since we got to the island. I figured you'd be happy and having sex against a palm tree by now."

"I don't know," the brunette girl answered with a sigh. She hated to admit it, but she had hopped for that as well. She cursed herself for being so stupid. "We kissed at the party and in the church, but when I tried to talk to him about it, he just brought up the rule."

'"What rule?" Kiara asked with furrowed eyebrows since it had been forever since they even mentioned any rules. That was one of the rules of Poguelandia — no rules. When Pope tried to bring up what an oxymoron that was, JJ just told him to shut up.

Bree groaned and stabbed her spear into the gound when she finished it. "The no pogue-on-pogue macking rule."

"Please, I think it's safe to say that rule has kind of stopped now," the curly-haired girl laughed out, rolling her eyes at the blonde boy. Everything was going so great and then he had t go and mess it up.

The Callaway girl just shrugged and looked down at her feet. The only shoes that she had were her converse, and you could barely tell what they were anymore. They were torn up, washed out, and very very sandy. "Yeah, well, not for him, I guess."

"How's yours looking?" a voice asked from behind them, and they turned to see JJ walking toward them with a spear in his hand. Both of them held up their completed spears before standing up. "Y'all ready to provide for the family?"

"Yep," the Callaway girl answered, dusting the sand off her battered shorts.

He smiled and started walking toward the spot where they were going to hut, the tw girls following him. "Let's go kill something."

"You don't have to say it like that," Kie complained, still upholding her environmental beliefs. She had refused to kill animals before this, but their need for some protein kind of overrode that.

He shrugged as Bree rolled her eyes at their bickering. "That's exactly what we're gonna do."

"It sounds so barbaric, like..."

"Well, that's the circle of life, Kie," he sighed like they just absolutely had to eat the fish, which they kind of did. "Unless you want to eat coconuts forever."

The brunette girl then spoke up, shaking her head aggressively. She did not even like coconuts before they came to the island, but now she was very very sick of them. "No, no, no. After the past month, I think I'm good on coconuts for life."

"Today's the day," he announced as they arrived at the beach. They spread out a little bit, Bree in the middle of the two, and held their spears at the ready. "All right, remember, watch your shadow. They see that, they're gone. All right, here we go. Just like we practiced, all right?"

"All right," the Carrera girl confirmed.

"Hey. Hey, Kie. Kie, Kie, Kie. Kie, it's a skate," the Maybank informed them, and he grabbed Bree's arm and pulled her toward him slightly, giving the other girl moer room. She turned to him, and they shared an awkward look before he released her. "It's a skate right there. You see him?"

The curly-haired girl nodded, but they could tell that she was still trying to willherself to take the life of a creature. "All right. It's all me."

"You got this, Kie," the brunette encouraged, trying to cheer on her friend.

"He sees me! He's coming over by you!" JJ yelled at her, but his voice made her freak out even moer, and she was looking really panicked. "He's coming towards you."

All of a sudden, she grutned loudly, summoning all of her inner courage and slammed her spear into the ground. When she lifted up the weapon, there was a skate on the end of it. "Oh my God."

"Oh, shit!" Bree exclaimed as a smile spread across her face. JJ turned to her with an excited grin which she gladly returned. This was the first protein that they had had in a long time. Bree was surprised that they had survived that long.

"We're having skate tonight," the blonde boy breathed out, and he wrapped his arm around the brunette after she was done hugging Kie. The Carrera girl shot her a knwing glance, causing her to glare back at her, not appreciating it. "Full Pogue!"

《✵》

THE POGUES WERE ALL SITTING IN A CIRCLE AND LAUGHING. They had been playing truth or dare, and Sarah had just been dared togo skinny dipping. Now, it was her turn to ask someone. "John B, your turn. Truth or dare?"

"All right, all right," he smiled as she passed the hat over to him meaning that it was his turn. It was made out of leaves and stuff, and he placed it on his head. He decided, "Truth."

"If you could do it all again... what would you do different?" the blonde girl questioned, and they all oohed and ahhed at the question, thinking about their own answers as well.

While he was thinking about what he was going to say, JJ spoke up in the silence, "Uh, get the gold out before Ward did."

"Maybe hide the cross a little better," Pope offered. He was still pretty bummed that they had lost it in the middle of the freaking ocean. At least Rafe and Ward did not have it. That was the biggest thing that mattered to him. He did not want his family heirloom in their hands. Who knew what they would do with it?

Kie nodded along to what they were saying before adding, "Not yell 'murderer' at Ward, maybe."

"Not date Rafe," Bree told them, and they all kind of chuckled at the thought. It seemed like so long ago when it was really just a few months. "Now that I look back on it, that was really weird for my mom to set me up with him considering he's, like, three years older than me."

"Yeah, that was really weird," Pope agreed, as the rest nodded.

John B finally came up with his response to the question that was asked. "Uh, steal a couple bottles of rum before we jumped off the boat?"

"Yeah, why didn't you do that, actually?" JJ quizzed, raising his eyebrows at the boy, and Bree rolled her eyes as she giggled. The blonde boy turned toward her when she made the sound and smiled. Once they made eye contact, they both kind of awkwardly looked away.

The Routledge boy scoffed, "Maybe 'cause I was in a fight to the death?"

"I would look both ways before crossing the street," Cleo added, and they all looked up at her with grins, remembering how the brunette boy had hit her with his car.

"Yeah, my bad. My bad, " he laughed and looked down, shooting her a playfully apoplogetic look before looking over at the Carrera girl. "All right, Kie, truth or dare?"

Kie grabbed the hat from his head and placed it on her own and then responded, "Truth."

"All right. Um, if you could go home to your parents' house on Figure Eight this instant, would you do it?" he asked her, and they all turned to her curiously. Bree thought about her home before her mother left, the beautiful house on Figure Eight.

The curly-haired girl thought for a moment before smiling and shaking her head. "No chance."

"Seconded," JJ shouted, and the Callaway girl nodded along. There was no way she would go back, no matter how appealing it seemed. She was with her family, and that was her home.

Before she asked the next question, she added, "The shower's tempting though."

"Oh, I could use a fat shower right now," the brunette girl groaned, as they all chuckled and reminisced about the thought of a nice warm shower. None of them had really bathed in a month. It was kind of really gross.

The Carrera girl turned to her brunette friend that had yet to go with raised eyebrows as she placed that hat on her head. "B, truth or dare?"

"Dare," she answered. There had been too many truths recently, and they needed to spice it up a little bit. She was a little scared about what it would be, though.

"Big jump. Nobody's done it yet," she replied, and she pointed to this huge cliff on the island that overlooked the ocean. Everyone's eyes widened in interest as they waited for the girl's answer. "Dare."

Instead of saying anything, the Callaway girl just stood up, letting them know that she was going to do it. JJ stood up with her, and she looked at him with furrowed eyebrows. He informed her, "I'll walk you up."

So he did. It was a very quiet and awkward walk since the both of them had tried to not be alone together for the last month. They had been doing surprisingly well, having only been alone together for very short periods of time. It was not that they were mad at each other or anything. It had just been really weird since their talk on the boat.

"You ready?" he asked once they had reached the top of the cliff.

The two of them looked over the edge to the water that was very far below them, and she took a deep breath. What was the worst that could happen? "As I'll ever be."

"We'll do it together," he announced after a second when he saw how nervous she was. He knew that she would definitely not back down from a dare, but that did not mean that she was not terrified. Doing it together would hopefully make it better.

Her eyes widened in shock when she realized what he meant. He had not been dared to do that. She had. He could just happily watch from above. "What? It was my dare."

"Well, too bad," he responded with a chuckle, and he reached out and grabbed her hand. It was nothing much, but it sent chills down her spine. It wasn't friendly. It was something more as he looked into her eyes, his full of encouragement and soothing. "On three."

She nodded in agreement, tearing her eyes away from his and looking down at the water as she took a couple of deep breaths and prepared herself for what was to come. "Okay."

"One, two, three," he counted, and they both leaped off the edge and went plunging down toward the water. Since her arms were out, they stung as they slapped against the water, but she was able to swim up to the surface. At some point, JJ had let go of her hand, but she saw his smiling face as soon as she wiped her eyes.

They both laughed excitedly, and he threw his arms around her as they treaded water. Their friends cheered from the shore, shocked that they had done it. After they pulled away, their faces were scarily close, and it took everything in Bree to pull away.

The smile still remained on their faces as they swam to the beach to rejoin their friends.