Pogue on Pogue- JJ Maybank

Chapter 38

We all start following JB and JJ hesitates for a second.
" You comin' or what?" Kie asks, and JJ starts following us.
" Hey, come here." JB whispers, motioning for all of us to get closer to him.
" So, here's the plan. We need to look for the wheat near the water, like it said in Denmark's letter." John B explains, still whispering.
" Okay, like what kind of water? Like, pond water?" Pope asks.
" Bong water?" JJ suggests, making me laugh but I put my hand over my mouth to make me quiet.
Pope and Kie look at JJ like he's stupid, and JB just ignores him.
" No, it just said look for water, okay?" JB says.
" That's the shittiest secret message ever." Kie complains, walking ahead of JB.
I kind of agree with Kie that it is a terrible secret message.
" You wanna complain a little more, Kie? Nobody said it was gonna be easy." JB says, annoyance clear in his voice.
" Chill, JB." I say, before he walks after Kie, ignoring me.
I walk back towards Pope and JJ, and I can feel myself getting weaker with each step.
" MJ and I will search the southwest quadrant, you search the northwest." Pope says. I walk toward Pope and start to follow him into our quadrant.
" The decapitation quadrant." JJ says.
" Yep." I say, walking after Pope.

After about 30 seconds of looking, I speak up.
" How've you been?" I ask Pope, while kind of limping from the pain.
" Okay, you?" He asks, watching me limp after him.
" Been better." I say, slightly smiling.
" I can tell, do you need a break?" He asks, standing still for a moment.
" No, I'll be okay." I say.
" Okay." He says, continuing forward.
" How's your scholarship thing?" I ask.
" I haven't had any real time to work on it, but I started it a couple of days ago." He explains.
" You should work on it, I know it means a lot to you." I say, sincerely.
" You seem to be the only one who knows or cares that it means a lot to me, like I get that this gold is important to JB but it's not just about him." Pope complains, still looking around.
" I get it. Maybe later, if you want, I can help you with it or I can try to get the rest of us away for a bit so you can work on it?" I offer.
" Yeah, that'd be nice." He says, smiling back at me.
I notice how far away we are from each other, because my pain is slowing me down, and so does Pope.
" Do you wanna piggyback ride?" Pope offers, looking back at me, and I give in to help.
" Yes, please." I say, catching up to him.
" Hop on." He says, kneeling down so I can get on his back.
" Thanks, you're the best." I say, hopping into his back.
" No problem, you're super light." He says.
" Yep, that's what not having money for food will do to ya." I say joking, but Pope looks at me concerned.
" I was kidding, we just ate earlier." I say, smiling at him. He lets it go and we keep looking.
We make our way to the side of the house, and we see JB leaning over, looking at something, and Kie walking over too.
" Hey, psst! Hey, come on. It's the only place we haven't looked." JB says, pointing to a entrance to a crawl space that's under the house.
Pope jogs over with me on his back and so does Kie. JJ jumps out of the trees and almost falls.
" Oh, shit." JJ says, running towards us.
" I'm gonna put you down now." Pope says, and leans down so I can slide off.
" Thank you." I say, sliding off of his back, and I can feel JJ's eyes on my back.
I look at JJ and he doesn't look happy. What's his problem? I ask myself as we continue into the crawl space, under the house.
As we all walk through the crawl space, JJ speaks up.
" Down came Mrs. Crain and cut off all our heads, Up came the sun and dried up all the blood." JJ quietly sings, the the tune of the itsy bitsy spider.
" Can you stop?" Pope asks, annoyed with JJ's antics already.
We get to a part of the crawl space where we can stand up straight and we spread out a bit, looking around.
" See any water?" Kie asks, pointing her flashlight as she looks.
I walk opposite of her and I can hear JJ following me.
" You should have been on my back." JJ whispers angrily in my ear as he grabs my waist, I can feel his breath on my neck, and it sends shivers up my spine.
" You weren't around." I tease, knowing that he's jealous.
" I was earlier, but no, you're not gonna accept my help, but you'll let Pope carry you." JJ explains, still whispering. I feel his hands on my waist grip me tighter as I tease him.
" Yep." I tease, popping the p, just to get on his nerves, and I can feel myself getting turned on at his jealousy.
" Oh, I can't wait til we get home." He whispers in my ear, causing a shiver to go up my spine. He then walks away from me, leaving me alone.
"Neither can I." I mumble to myself, and keep looking around. After a minute passes, Kie speaks up.
" Another dead end." Kiara says, clearly annoyed.
" There's not even water on the pipes." JJ whispers, touching the water pipes above us.
" There's no water here." Pope says, stating the obvious.
" Not a dropamino." JJ adds.
" Know why we didn't find it?" Kie asks, sarcastically.
" Bad karma." Kie says, and I look at her confused for a second, before remembering that Sarah gave us the map, and she hates Sarah.
" Oh, god. Here we go." JB mumbles.
" Oh shit." I mumble to myself, and move away from JB, so I don't literally get caught in the middle, even though my alliance is with Kie.
" You know, we had a good thing going, and then you decided to rope in Barbie, and now the trail's gone dry." Kie says, stepping towards John B. Pope and JJ keep looking around, and walk away a bit to look around too.
" Coincidence? Probably not." Kie says.
" This is exactly why I didn't wanna tell you about Sarah." John B explains, steeping towards Kie
" Yeah?" Kiara asks, anger in her voice.
" Yeah." JB confirms.
" What the hell's the deal? What's going on with you two?" John B asks Kie.
" Nothing." Kie says.
" Nothing? Is it because I kissed you? Is that the problem?" JB asks, arrogance and anger getting the better of him.
" What the fuck?" I whisper, looking at him like he's lost his damn mind.
Kiara slaps him, making his head turn.
" Oh!" Pope says from across the room.
" Oh shit!" JJ says.
" He deserved that." I say.
" That echoed, dude!" JJ says to Pope.
" Stop treating me like I'm some girl that's obsessed with you." Kie says. " Instead of your best friend who's actually trying to look out for you." Kiara adds.
And JB looks at her, clearly angry.
" Did you, uh, hit me?" He asks, like an idiot.
" She sure did." I say quietly, and get nothing but I smirk from Kie.
" Skeeter." Kie says, holding up her hand to show the dead mosquito on her hand.
Eww, I think to myself.
" Skeeter?" JB asks, not believing her.
" Yeah, you see it?" Kie asks, sarcastically.
" Yeah." JB mumbles.
JB slaps Kiara, lighter than she hit him, but still.
" Wow!" I say loudly.
" Oh, hey!" JJ says to JB, in disbelief that he hit her.
" Okay, alright, no!" JJ says, but they ignore us all.
" Where's your proof?" Kie asks, and JB hold up his hand so she can see the tiny dead mosquito in his hand.
" Skeeter." He explains, a smirk on his face.
" Yeah?" Kie asks, before slapping his chest.
" There's probably one right there." She says.
" There's one right there." He says, slapping her arm.
They go back and forth for a bit, but their anger dies out quickly as they are both smiling.
" These things are a freakin' swarm!" Pope complains, jumping around and swatting himself and the air around him.
" Shh! Keep it down." JJ whisper yells at JB and Kie as they mess around.
    " Why are there so many mosquitoes in a basement?" Pope questions, and it gets me to thinking to, because they tend to stay by water.
     " Yeah, don't they stay more by water?" I ask.
     " Dude, seriously. Tiny vampire bats, just leave me alone." He says, swatting the air around him. His mood clearly different than it was just a few minutes ago.
     " Oh my gosh! Okay, can we leave? 'Cause I'm already itching to leave. Ha, punny." He says, chuckling at his pun, and I laugh with him.
     Pope starts stomping on a little wood platform, but the sound it makes sounds hollow.
     " That sounds a bit hollow." I say.
" I just found Mrs. Crain's voodoo doll, guys." JJ says, holding up a dirty, old, voodoo doll.
     " Make sure you wash your hands when we get back." I say, disgusted that he would touch the nasty old thing.
    Pope drops a rock in between the planks of wood, and it makes a splash.
    Pope starts trying to clear off the platform and it makes a lot of noise.
    " Shh!" Kie says.
" Help me move this." Pope says, looking at JJ, JB, and I.
     We all carefully take the stuff off the platform and start moving the planks of wood.
     " Shh! She's probably right upstairs." Kie says.
    " Why would you say that?" I ask, fear creeping into my voice as I stare at the ceiling.
    I can feel my arm giving out under the weight of the wood, so I lightly put it down and step away, Kie looks at as if to ask ' you alright?'. I just nod and look at my arms.
   She takes the wood off of the well as the boys finish their pieces.
    We all look over the edge and into the deep well.
    " Well, well, well." Pope says, making me chuckle.
    " That was a good dad joke." JB says to Pope.
" Yeah it was. High five." I say, putting my hand up.
    He high-fives me hard.
" Ow, jerk." I say, rubbing my hand.
    " Sorry, forgot you were hurt." He apologizes.
" It's fine." I say.
    " They built this part of the house right over it." Kiara says.
    " This is where she hid the bodies." JJ says.
" Dude." John B says, looking at him.
    " Stop." Kie and I say in unison.
" No, I'm dead serious." JJ says.
     " Stop it." Kiara says, a little louder than last time.
      " It was never an outhouse." JJ adds.
" She probably doesn't even know that it's here." I explain.
      " So, we found water." Pope says to John B.
" We're gonna need a really big rope." John B says.

A/N: Hi! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you find any typos or anything, please comment. Don't forget to vote and comment what you think about it. Have an amazing day! Thank you for reading!