chapter 6.
spy games.

୨୧

They should have known it was too good to be true.

maxine, john b, pope, and kiara crowd around the drones monitor, gazing at the gold-less shipwreck of the infamous royal merchant. "it's not there. look, just pull the drone up." john b tells the crew, cursing, "shit."

"we can do another pass." pope offers gently. "recharge the battery. we can go back down."

jj calls out from the helm of the boat, "guys, we've been through it three times. there's nothing there."

"shut up!" maxine yells back.

"what? it's true!"

kiara argues, "the gold could be buried. we don't know."

"if it was there it would've been found on the metal detector, okay?" john b retorts. "somebody beat us to it."

"or it was never there." jj mutters, turning the small boat around.

"motherfucker!" max curses loudly, harshly kicking the side of the boat.

𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼

Maxine found an odd sense of comfort in the violence often seen from her friends. after all, she grew up around men who tended to use their fists and strain their vocal courses to get their points across. and so, she sits calmly in jj's backyard, watching intently as he repeatedly shoots at a stuffed animal perched on a tree stump.

"jj! jj!" pope rushes around the back of the house, stopping in the yard and panting heavily.

the blonde doesn't hear his friend. "what was that?" he mutters to the stuffed animal, "that's what i thought, man."

maxine rolls her eyes, cupping both hands around her mouth, "jj!" she yells at the top of her lungs, grabbing a rock off the ground and hurling it at the toy, sending it toppling off of the tree stump.

jj turns to the girl, about to curse her out when he notices pope.

"they know." pope worriedly breathes out.

"what?" the blonde boy removes his headphones.

"they know."

"shit." maxine curses, jumping to her feet. "how can you be sure?"

"chill guys, all right? they don't know shit." jj reassures his friends.

"topper knows i sunk his boat." pope paces anxiously.

"how do you know they know?" jj repeats max's previous question.

"because rafe and topper posted outside of hayward's and mad dogged me."

"will you calm down and get a grip, man?" jj leans back on the tree stump. "they don't know shit."

"they have cameras. they could've seen me." pope stresses.

jj is unconvinced. "there was no power. how could they have seen you?"

"it's figure eight, jj. they got generators." max retorts.

"they don't give scholarships to kids who vengefully sink boats." pope continues his pacing, "that is not a good look on my transcript."

jj rises to his feet. "enough with the regret, bro! they caved your face in. and they hurt max." he gestures to the girl standing behind him. "they hit us, we hit them. it's the law of the jungle. now, if any kooks come up to you and ask if you had anything to do with it, you walk up to 'em, look 'em right in the eye, and..."

pope hesitates for a moment until maxine leans in, whispering "deny the livin' shit out of it."

"that's right. deny, deny, deny." jj nods, pointing at the younger girl with approval.

"but just for safety, we don't go anywhere without protection." he points at the gun laying on the tree stump.
𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼

Max was not one to sit still for very long, yet kiara still insisted on her coming to the obx summer movie series night.

"so glad that they're still doing this." kie remarks, walking slightly ahead of the group. "keep calm, carry on. back to obx life."

"more like keep calm, get killed." max mutters under her breath, jabbing pope with her elbow. he shoots her a wide eyed look.

"aren't you glad i made you come?" kie sets up her lawn chair. "max, this is your first obx summer! you should be pumped."

"more like pumped up kicks." maxine whispers to jj and pope. "do you guys see how many kooks are here right now?"

"yeah, we're out of the green zone, man." pope agrees anxiously.

"dude, tranquilo, okay?"

"we're in the middle of kooklandia." max whispers urgently. "what about that is 'tranquilo'?"

"shut up, max." jj rolls his eyes, annoyed.

kiara walks off to get drinks from the concession stand, leaving max and the boys to set up their lawn chairs. she rejoins the group moments later, handing max and the boys each a can of pepsi. "just saw rafe, and he said, and i quote, 'tell your boy that we know what he did'. what is that?"

max bites her thumbnail, jerking her head towards jj.

"um...where is he?" the blonde asks.

"right there." kiara gestures toward the back of the crowd where rafe stands with topper and kelce.

"great, the whole death squad." pope squeaks.

"yeah, we are so screwed." maxine notes.

"don't stare." jj reaches out both arms, turning the two friends' heads back around.

maxine swats the blondes arm away, "do not touch me."

jj rolls his eyes, looking towards pope, "just warning you bro. if they corner me, i'm coming out swinging, okay? slicin' and dicin'. i'm on edge right now."

pope and maxine both nod in agreement. "yeah, yeah."

jj holds up his bag, "if that doesn't work, i've got this right here."

"we just gotta stay in the group. they can't get
us if we're in the group." max offers.

"yeah, like a school of fish." jj snaps his fingers.

pope cracks open his pepsi, "stay in the school. can't leave the school."

kie balks. "i'm sorry, jj...please tell me that you did not bring a gun here. jj, there are kids!"

"no, kie, i didn't bring the gun." jj assures, "plus, i mean, pigtails over here is a kid." he gestures to max sitting beside him, "since when has that ever stopped us?"

"woah, woah!" max holds up both hands dramatically, leaning backwards in her seat. "that sounded predatory."

"no—i—just shut up. everything's fine, okay?" jj continues.

"wow, thank you. that's really convincing. i love that, jj." kiara is unconvinced. "founding principle, you guys. no secrets amongst pogues. what is rafe talking about?"

pope turns to kiara, a serious look crossing his face. "kie, it might go down tonight."

"what does that mean? 'might go down tonight.' " kie repeats, "what did y'all do?" the brunette looks over at maxine, "max? what did they do?"

jj leans over, whispering, "deny, deny, deny."

max internally rolls her eyes. "as if i need a lesson on how to lie," she thinks.

𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼

"Jj, i gotta take a piss!" pope hisses, tapping the other boy on the leg barely halfway through the movie.

"hold it." the blonde whispers back, not moving his gaze from the screen.

"i can't hold it. i drank too much soda."

"it's too exposed." jj argues back, "they'll totally see us."

"i gotta go!" pope insists. he turns around in his seat to spot the three kooks. "they're blocking the bathrooms."

jj looks around briefly. "fine. come here. i know where."

noticing the two boys slowly rise from their seats, maxine begins to stand as well.

"and just where are you going?" pope asks the girl.

"uh, with you." max retorts.

"uh, no." jj sasses back. "you're staying here."

"but—"

"stay. here." jj finalizes.

kiara looks over as max gives up, sighing into her chair. "hey, where y'all going?"

jj pauses, "we gotta wring it out."

kie looks disgusted, "what, you gonna hold it for each other?"

the boys walk off. kiara turns to max, "okay, what the hell was that all about?"

max mimes zipping her lips and throwing away the key, whispering, "just keep an eye on the three stooges back there." she juts her head toward rafe and his friends. "they move, we move."

𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼

Sure enough, they moved — as was expected anyways. kooks never pass up an opportunity for a fight. noticing the three stooges' disappearance, maxine and kiara race around the back of the movie screen, the latter violently swinging her backpack around. "let go of him, topper! you fascist asshole!"

topper easily grabs hold of the bag and yanks it away, tossing it out of reach as he continues to beat on pope.

maxine lunges herself at rafe, grabbing fistfuls of his hair and yanking hard. "give it up, you psychotic bastards!"

without so much as the slightest struggle, rafe simply shrugs the small girl off of his back. not about to give up, max turns to topper and hops up into his back, punching him repeatedly in a desperate attempt to get the older boy to release his grip on pope.

rafe hands jj off to kelce and grabs max off of topper.

"let go of me, rafe!" max squeals, elbowing him harshly.

"stay out this, maxine!" rafe violently chucks the younger girl to the ground. max cries out in pain as she hits the dirt.

"max! you okay?" kiara shouts, kicking topper hard in the stomach and rushing toward the girl.

"i'm fine." max breathes, "the bag. get the bag."

kie immediately understands. she rushes to her discarded backpack and fishes jj's lighter out from the bottom, flicking it on and lighting the bottom of the movie screen in an effective distraction.

rafe pauses, alerting his friends. "guys! fire!"

"get off of them!" max orders, rising to her feet.

"kelce, let go of jj!" kiara adds. kelce does so, harshly shoving the blonde away.

"let's get outta here." rafe tells his friends, "let's go!"

max rushes to jj while kie helps pope to his feet. "you good?"

pope coughs. "you're a freakin' idiot."

"i saved your ass." kie slings an arm over his shoulders, leading him away. she calls out to maxine and jj, "come on!"

𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼

Maxine joins the older kids in heywards shop the following day, discussing the previous nights events.

"don't let it get in your head, bro. there's three of them and two of us." jj tells pope. "that's some typical kook shit right there."

"hell yeah." kie agrees, ringing up a customer.

"what was your thought process, using your head?" jj asks.

"i don't know, man." pope shrugs. "i just kind of acted off instinct. i was a cornered animal."

hayward enters the shop, calling out to his son. "hey, pope! someone here to see you."

officer shoupe follows behind, startling the four friends.

pope stands straight. "evening, officer."

shoupe gets right to the point. "i have an arrest warrant for felony destruction of property." he approaches the teen. "keep your hands on the counter, where i can see them."

max steps forward. "wait, what the hell?"

shoupe easily brushes past her. "young lady, out of my way."

heyward steps in. "woah, wait, wait. shoupe, what'd he do?"

"take a look at the warrant." shoupe pulls popes hands behind his back, handcuffing him.

"i'm sorry, you're arresting him?" kiara exclaims.

"you're just gon' arrest my boy?"

"hey, be careful!" maxine shouts.

shoupe tightens the handcuffs as he begins reciting the miranda rights. "you have the right to remain silent. anything you say can and will be held against you in the court of law. you have the right to an attorney..."

"how much did they pay you?" max snarls, following the group as shoupe leads pope out of the shop.

suddenly, jj interrupts the banter just as shoupe opens the door to his cruiser. "it was me! he tried to talk me out of it, but i was mad because he'd just been beaten up. i was so sick of those assholes from figure eight that i lost my shit." he approaches pope and the officer. "i can't let you take the blame for somethin' i did. you've got too much to lose."

pope looks shocked. "jj, what are you doing?"

"i'm tellin' the truth. for once in my goddamn life, i'm gonna tell the truth." jj shrugs, admitting, "i took his old man's boat, too."

hayward tilts his head. "what the hell?"

"jj, come on—"

"just shut up, pope!" jj shouts. "just shut up." he turns back to shoupe. "he's a good kid. you know where i'm from." shoupe nods. "yeah."

"this was all me."

the officer turns to pope, asking, "that's the whole truth?" pope pauses for a moment, looking at jj, who nods. "whole truth, swear to god."

"i know what you think, damn it. i'm asking pope." shoupe snaps. pope nods solemnly. "yeah. that about covers it."

officer shoupe removes popes handcuffs and helps jj into the waiting cruiser; his three friends watch as the car pulls away. pope yanks his hat off, tossing it to the dirt. "shit!"