Bad Karma

eight

Leilani Elrod

Episode 1. Pilot

Awkward silence. That was the only way to describe the vibe between the four of us while John B was out "borrowing" the Cameron's scuba gear. Kie was braiding my hair while Pope studied and JJ was flipping his lighter back and forth.

"Ow, Kie! Don't pull so hard!" I grimaced as she yanked my hair.

JJ chuckled, "Don't like your hair being pulled, Lee?"

I narrowed my eyes at him, "Of course not. Who does?"

"Well-"

"Don't corrupt her, JJ." Kie scolded him.

I didn't know what Kie meant by that, but I crossed my arms, "Yeah. And I'm still mad at you."

"For what?"

I smacked my hand down on the cushion beside me, my eye twitching, "Are you being serious?"

Kie stopped braiding my hair and Pope looked up from his textbook, his eyes widening as my anger grew. This was one of the few times they were afraid of me. I'm so totally intimidating.

"Pope, help me out, man!" JJ groaned. When Pope put his hands up and didn't reply, JJ looked over at Kie, "Kie? A little help?"

"You did this to yourself, figure it out."

"Oh, come on! I didn't do anything!"

"Didn't do anything?" I seethed.

"Okay, Pope and I are gonna give you guys a minute." Kie slowly stood and motioned for Pope to follow her.

I wasn't a fan of confrontation, but I was as angry as could be at JJ.

"I want an apology!"

"An apology for what? I didn't do shit." I grabbed a pillow from next to me and threw it at him, "Hey! The fuck was that for?"

"'I should have let Topper drown your- beep.'" I quoted him, "What would ever possess you to even say that!"

"It was true! I was trying get my point across!"

I stood up, walking over to him and pressing my finger into his chest with every word I said, "You selfish-"

"Selfish? I got in a fight for your ass!" JJ grabbed my hand, stopping me from jabbing at him any more.

"I didn't ask you to bleepin' do that! I was perfectly fine!" 

"Um, is everything okay?" John B appeared next to us.

I ripped my hand away from JJ as if he had burned me, "Peachy."

---

Kie took the tanks from John B, "These are empty. You took empty tanks."

I sat as far from JJ as I could, refusing to even look in his general direction. I let the gang, especially him, get away with a lot of things, usually not holding any grudges against them. But JJ had taken it too far and I couldn't keep letting him off the hook when he upsets me.

"I-" John B sighed.

"Okay, this one's a quarter full. It's enough for one of us."

"Love it when a plan comes together." Pope said sarcastically.

"Does anybody know how to dive?" The group looked at me. I did know how to dive. My family and I used to go diving all the time, despite it being a Kook sport.

Pope cleared his throat and I looked away from everyone, "Anyone else?"

JJ shrugged, "It's kind of a Kook sport." He read my thoughts exactly. Darn him.