Bad Karma

five

Leilani Elrod

Episode 1. Pilot

"Well, that was fun!" JJ said sarcastically, "Could have warned us sooner."

"We would have, but Pope was on the math team."

John B looked taken a back, "You were on the math team?"

"That was horrible and I'm never trusting you guys again." I stated, grabbing my sunglasses that I had ditched earlier and shoving them back on my face.

JJ leaned onto my shoulder, "Oh, come on. You didn't like me pressing you into the wall?" He grinned, laughing devishly.

I grimaced at him, "I don't know what that's supposed to mean or why you're laughing, but if you mean almost getting busted, no, I did not like it."

Whatever joke he was trying to make flew right over my head, but I didn't dwell on it. If it was important, then Kie would probably explain it to me later and write it off as JJ flirting with me.

"No, seriously. They took everything like it was a crime scene." Pope stated, "Did you guys find anything?"

"Did we find anything? No, I don't think so." I opened my mouth to say something, but JJ covered it with his hand. Why was nobody letting me speak? I licked his hand, but he still didn't move it. "Oh, yeah, we did." He finally let me go and pulled the gun and cash out of his pockets, not bothering to wipe his hand off before grabbing the gun.

Great. Now my saliva is on the gun. Just lovely.

Pope and Kie gasped.

"What the hell?"

"Dude, what?"

"Why would you take that from a crime scene?!"

Kie looked over at me, her mouth open, "You were supposed to make sure that they didn't do-" She motioned to JJ, still holding the gun, "-that!"

I put my hands up in defense, "I tried, but he wouldn't listen!"

Pope groaned, "I guess it is our fault for sending the least intimidating one up there."

"Hey!" I protested, "I'm intimidating!"

They all just stared blankly and my face fell. Whatever. I'm totally intimidating.

"Look, guys, it's better than the cops having it!"

John B was smiling and Kie scowled at him, "You serious?" His smile fell. Pfft. I could have done that. Like when I was yelling at them earlier. They were totally intimidated. Unless they actually felt bad for scaring me. Nah, definitely intimidated.

"I'm gonna lose my merit scholarship." Pope said solemnly.

"Hey, ch, ch, ch." JJ shushed him, "At least you have us, right?"

Pope looked over at us and I gave him a smile and a thumbs up. He didn't seem very impressed with that.

"I'm living the nightmare." He groaned.

As we got closer to shore, we noticed a crowd up by the docks. Sharing a look, we all had the same curiosity. So, we docked the boat and ran over, finding that someone had been found in the water. You know that they say, curiosity killed the cat. And in this case, I was the cat. More like trauma killed the cat (me, or my parents, if we're really getting technical), am I right? Not funny? K.

"Who's that?" John B asked.

"It's Scooter Grubbs. He was out during the storm."

I refused to look at the body that was a few feet from us, but none-the-less, my ears began to ring.

Out.

Out during the storm.

Dead.

Storm.

Out.

"Check out this pic I got! Dead body!" The girl shoved the phone in my face, my eyes colliding with a familiar sight. The body was swollen, filled with water, and blue with eyes wide open, bulging out of his skull, also swollen with water.

My vision tunneled as a bile rose in my throat. I pushed myself off the wall and ran to the other side of the dock, behind the shack, doubling over edge and throwing up everything I had eaten that day, including my multiple Capri-Suns and carrot sticks.

"Hey, it's okay. It's okay." Kie appeared next to me, rubbing my back.

"I want to go home. I want to go home."

"Okay, okay."

"I want to go home."

"JJ, grab her."

"I want to go home. I want to go home." I kept repeating. Over and over again. My ears were still ringing, but it was occasionally overridden with voices. Some being my own and some being Kie's or JJ's. Every now and then John B's or Pope's.

"I want to go home."

----

I was tucked into JJ's side, shaking uncontrollably when Pope ran into the screen-room after docking the boat. After being triggered, I couldn't bring myself to get back onto the boat, so Kie stayed with me on the dock while the boys went to get the car, and afterwards, Pope brought the boat back himself. Kiara helped me freshen up when we got back, making me feel a little bit better. Until I discovered that the boat we found, the Grady-White, was Scooter Grubbs'. Who was now dead.

"Okay.. So, um.. we didn't see anything." Pope panicked, "We don't know anything. We need to have total and complete amnesia."

"Actually, Pope's right for once." I wanted to agree with JJ, but my braid told me that I would never be forgetting this. Ever. "See, I agree with you sometimes. Deny, deny. deny."

JJ rubbed my arm as I let out a shaky breath, goosebumps following wherever he touched.

"Guys, we can't keep that money.'

JJ scoffed, "Okay. Not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, Kiara."

If my brain would let me, I would have told JJ off for saying that, but it was as if my jaw was wired shut. I couldn't say anything and even if I could, I don't think I could even find any words to say. I just needed to sleep this off and then I could be brand new tomorrow morning.

Kie ignored JJ's comments, "We have to pass that off to Lana Grubbs. Otherwise it's bad karma." She softened her voice and looked at me, "Right, Lani?"

I could feel everyone look at me, but I kept my eyes trained on the floor, my vision going in and out of focus. From my peripheral, I could see John B shake his head while waving his hand back and forth over his throat, silently telling everyone to leave me alone. I scooted closer into JJ.

Pope cleared his throat, turning the attention away from me, "Well, it's bad karma to be implicated in a felony, too. We gotta go dark."

"If that means we get to keep the money, then I agree."

"I don't agree." John B stated, beginning to pace around the room.

"What? Why?"

"Just think about it." He said, "This is Scooter Grubbs we're talking about, right? Same dude that's buying individual cigarettes at the Porthole." Finally, I was broken out of whatever trance I was in, my eyes looking up at John B, "Shit, one time I saw this dude begging for change in the Save-A-Lot parking lot because he needed gas. We're talking about a dirtbag marina rat who's never had more than forty bucks in his pocket, and all of a sudden he's got a Grady-White? Just sayin'."

Pope shook his head, "I can't think about this right now. I'm going fishing." He stormed out of the screen-room, leaving the group to look around at each other.

"We're going after him, right?" John B said.

"Duh."

Kie brought me inside. I wasn't in the mood to chase him around right now and they would catch me up on everything later. She checked on me a thousand times before chasing after the rest of the group, leaving me to finally sleep. I just needed a couple hours to regain my composure.