𝐍𝐎 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘, 𝐍𝐎 𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐄 - kiara carrera²

𝒙𝒊𝒊𝒊. 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈

"HOW LONG YOU BEEN WAITING?"

Feeling much better about herself after a long talk with Heyward, Tatum Quinn stood beside the Château with a large grin as she watched her friends approach her in the boat.

"Not long compared to the amount of time it took to get the baby to sleep," she answered JJ's question, her mind doing whirrs now that she had every little piece of her usual energy back. Which was a lot, considering she was always hyperactive. She nodded to John B's small home - all of their's home. They all lived at the Château at one point in their lives. Especially JJ and Tatum, who did all they could to escape to horrific reality of their family's houses. "He's down on the couch."

The pouges all smiled at her, grateful for whatever had lifted her mood back up. Normal. Or how much of normal a teenage serial killer could be. But they didn't care about all the labels on her back - 'The Crazy Quinn', 'The Midnight Ghoul', 'The OBX Psycho' - because they knew the real Tatum, and the real Tatum was the equivalent to a bunny.

One by one, her friends made their way off the boat and onto the dock they spent their pre-teen years messing around on. Faint pastel colours of chalk stained the wood from the times they used to draw before going to school, the mere, light smell of it sending a million memories through each of their heads. Times were simpler back then, horrible but simple. They often wondered what would've happened if they never discovered the Royal Merchant. JJ and Tatum would still be suffering in silence because of their fathers, Pope would've had his scholarship and a wealthy future ahead of him, Sarah would be cluelessly living behind the devil and Kiara would...be Kiara. Thomas would be alive. But everytime their minds went to that place, they had to remind themselves that without the gold, they wouldn't be standing there so strong. They wouldn't even be friends with Sarah. They wouldn't have Baby TJ. They probably wouldn't have Tatum anymore. They thought their friendship was strong before, but now they were way past friendship - they were family.

"You know, I gotta be honest," Kiara spoke up, wrapping her arms around Tatum's waist and hugging her from behind, planting a soft kiss to her temple. "Not exactly looking forward to a check-in at home. My parents already arranged my funeral."

"Really?" asked Tatum, looking up at her girlfriend with a mischievous grin. "'Cause I planned your mom's a couple of months ago."

Finally beginning to get used to the girl's bulnt boldness, Sarah snorted and refrained her giggles by nuzzling her face into her husband's shoulder. Meanwhile, the boys all laughed out loud.

"What's your problem with my mom?" asked Kiara, swinging her head around to face Tatum with a light laugh.

Her girlfriend shrugged, sipping on a can of beer. "She's just a bitch, ain't she?"

In response, Kie jokingly lifted her into the air and leaned her over the fence, threatening to throw her into the water. Squealing and her hair swinging all over the place, Tatum gently tapped her girlfriend's arm to put her down. If it were a few weeks ago, there was no way the Carrera girl would be able to carry the weight and the muscle of the Quinn. But then Tatum was kidnapped, and all her fat was gone. Her lack of eating concerned the others a lot now, especially John B and Sarah, who hadn't seen the girl consume anything but beer in days, but they guessed that after being starved for such a long time, just chewing on gum would take a while to get used to.

"I predict unpleasantries at the Heyward household after I left the truck in Charleston," said Pope in his usual awkward, 'not-sure-if-I-should-speak' tone. Tatum scrunched up her nose in a cringe, recalling a half hour conversation of his dad listing nothing but punishments for him. She didn't want to narc on her friend, of course, but Heyward was so worried about his son to the point where he was crying because he didn't know how to help him. And how was she supposed to not tell a sobbing old man that his son was okay?

Everyone went quiet for a moment, each of them imagining their very own homecoming. JJ's dad was currently resting in jail, so he'd be alone. Sarah's dad was basically Satan, so she couldn't exactly go back there. John B's dad was dead, so the Château was all his. And Tatum....Tatum was confused. But she was always confused, and that was okay.

"No one knows we're here, right?" asked JJ after a moment of thinking. The others snapped out of their dark trains of thoughts and looked up at him with suspicion. Whenever he started things like this, he usually went on to say something very much illegal that only he, John B and Tatum would find fun. He nodded his head to Kie and Pope. "And you two aren't gonna get into any more trouble for showing up twelve hours later." The two in question shared a look, but dropped it immediately when Tatum joined in with playful, wiggly brows. Pope felt bile rise to his throat when he was reminded of what he did, and Kiara squeezed her girlfriend tightly, pushing away the guilt and regret, refusing to acknowledge what had happened.

"You're not wrong," said Pope, turning back to JJ, who was already glaring at him, and wouldn't stop until he told Tatum the truth. She deserved to hear it. What they did to her was selfish and disgusting, and JJ wouldn't forgive either of them for it until Tatum did herself. But it was hard for the girl to forgive something that she didn't know about.

"So that means we have twelve hours to do whatever we want."

Tatum grinned widely and excitedly jumped out of her girlfriend's arms to spin around with her unlimited energy. However, nobody else found this idea very good. Not even John B did.

When Kiara shook her head in response to JJ's suggestion, Tatum instantly retreated back into her arms and shook her head. "Stupid idea, J, I'm disappointed."

The boy frowned, knowing that if she wasn't so obsessed with the girl, she'd totally be on his side right now. He watched the two girls giggle and smile at each other like they were the only humans on the world, and he scowled. Pope needed to speak up soon, because clearly Kiara wasn't, and JJ couldn't live with the knowledge he had much longer. He couldn't let Tatum fall in love any more than she already had, because once she found out, it would crush her. And without Kie, Tatum Quinn was completely unpredictable. But, at the same time, it was unfair to let her live the rest of her life without knowing the truth. If there was anything Tatum hated, it was being a sob story. She wouldn't want the truth being hidden from her because people felt bad or were worried of her reaction. JJ knew that. Pope knew that; Kiara knew that. But, yet, they still did it anyway.

However, JJ also knew he wasn't the one who should tell her. And he had just gotten his friends back. Tonight was supposed to he fun and happy, like the old times. "Huh? A little Pouge fellowship. How does that sound?"

While Sarah shook her head with a stubborn pout, her teenage husband smirked. "Let the shit hit the fan tomorrow. Come on."

"Yeah!"

Kiara rolled her eyes and bit back her excitement, but rested her head on her girlfriend's shoulder, kissing her on the cheek with a nod. Tatum grinned when she realised that they were now going along with this plan.

"The cops could be looking for us," Sarah pointed out responsibly, not wanting either John B or Tatum to get locked up because they were caught by partying too loud. "It could be really stupid."

"Sarah Cameron, you've heard of my philosophy, right?" the blonde boy spoke confidently, striding towards her with a brotherly smile.

She refused to look him in the eye, fearing that his childishness would make her crack a smile. "No."

"Supid things have good outcomes all the time," he rehearsed, his friends behind all mouthing the words they knew too well. Somehow, everytime the sentence came out of his mouth, they did something stupid, but it did not once ever have a good outcome. One time, he convinced everyone to break into Kook Academy and 'rescue Kiara from the zombies'. Later that day, he and Tatum found themselves in cuffs after a run in with Topper and Kelce - Kie was very angry with them.

"Who's with me?" he called out, knowing he had gotten everyone on his side once again. "Let's get some beer!"

Tatum jumped up at the mention of alcohol and raced everyone to the boat with a ten year old's excitement.

"Tate, you left the baby!"

"Whoops."

a/n: i seriously didn't bother to edit this chapter so please point out any mistakes i made