The Teenage Haze || OBX

Chapter 3: Hopeless

The next few days were pretty fun.

Kie and I are already like besties...Pope and I got along really well because we share a lot of common interests and John B is always super nice to me, and accepts me as a Pogue, even though I'm more of an honorary Pogue.

JJ hasn't taken much notice to me. He always seems busy with or things or girls, but when he's around me he's nice enough.

"You just haven't gotten the chance to bond with him yet, " said Kiara as she gulped her beer.

"Bond? Not my thing."

She swallowed the beer in her mouth quickly so she could respond. "It's not his 'thing' either. Bond about that!" I laughed.

John B walked outside of the Château and sat next to us on the steps. Kiara passes him a beer. He looks upset.

"What's wrong John B?" he wouldn't look at us, just at the ground.

He popped open the beer. "DCS is coming for an assessment tomorrow." Kie was blown back. "What? Why?"

John B finally looked at us. "Well I'm a minor living alone, was skipping school, and basically does whatever I want so..."

I looked at him, "DCS came to my place when I was younger a few times. I know how it works. I'll help you out." they both looked at me.

"Why did they go to your house?" Kiara looked concerned– they both did.

I started to stand up "That's a different story," I said. I chugged the rest of my beer and placed it off to the side. "Okay John B, we got to get the Châtue in order. Let's go."

They were resistant at first but they eventually got up to help. We started with trash, which was a lot. We got 2 trash bags, one for recycling and one for not.

When we were done with the trash we took care of safety precautions. Exposed wires, misplaced knives, the smoke detector, and things like that.

After that we had to make sure there was enough food in the fridge—I walked over to it and peered inside—which there was not.

"Kiara, can you call Pope and tell him to bring over food from his dad? We need fruits vegetables, cheese, milk...The basics. It needs to look like he can take care of himself."

John B looked at me with a raised brow, "Which he can." I said and smiled at him.

"The food will get here soon," Kiara said as she sat on the couch next to John B.

The house looked decent. It looked normal. DCS would approve. I sat in between them on the couch. "Once the food gets here, we put it up in the fridge. That's all we could do."

We waited a while for Pope to come over with the food. When he did I put it all nicely in the fridge. It was all the essentials we needed.

I walked over to Pope and pulled out two $100 bills. "Give this to your dad? I know food is expensive. Tell him I said I really appreciate it."

Popes eyes widened and smiled big. "Y-you know you didn't need to pay?"

"It's all good, I wanted to."

"Thank you," he said.

The four of us just hung out for the rest of the day. We didn't do much. JJ never came by.

"JJ doesn't adapt well to change. For example, you being in the group now." Pope said. John B and Kiara agreed. "Yes that is definitely IT!" loud-talked Kie.

We were interrupted by a crackle of thunder. "Looks like it's going to rain." John B said with a smirk. Kie gasped, "This is the perfect time to get JJ and Audrey to bond. Audrey? Do you know how to surf?"