⤜---⤛ 𝔽𝕀𝕊𝕊𝕌ℝ𝔼 ⤜---⤛ ▬▬ 𝕠𝕦𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕓𝕒𝕟𝕜𝕤 ∗ 𝕛𝕛 ▬▬

⤛ 𝕒 𝕡𝕠𝕘𝕦𝕖 𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕟 ⤜

"Rise and shine, ladies!" The sudden voice made Talia groan as she awakened from her comfortable sleep on the couch. She opened one eye to try and match the voice to a body and saw John B lying on the floor next to her, clearly still recovering from their night out.

"In a minute," he sighed, burying his head in his pillow.

Then, JJ burst through the door of their place, shortly followed by Kiara and Pope. "We've got some news, folks," he said, clapping his hands together.

Talia groaned again and pulled the covers over her head. "Can't this wait until I'm actually awake?"

"Nope!" Kiara said, grinning. "We've got a lead on the gold!"

That got John B's attention. He quickly sat up, rubbing his eyes. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," Pope nodded. "We overheard some guys at the marina talking about a letter of some sort that's supposedly on a property belonging to... the Kahale family?"

JJ interjected under his breath, "Actually, I did, but that's cool."

John B shook his head. "Never heard of them."

Talia raised an eyebrow. "Kahale? As in, like... Noa Kahale, the new guy who literally just moved in?"

"You two have met?" JJ raised his eyebrow, and for a moment, Talia thought she recognised a hint of disappointment under the surprise.

She sat up awkwardly, wondering how she was going to explain her chat with Kiara the night prior, but Kiara butted in, "Yeah, I introduced them the other day when Tali was helping out at The Wreck." Talia gave her a grateful look.

JJ narrowed his eyes at them as he slowly nodded, then shook his head and refocused the group on the task at hand. "Sure, yeah. That's cool and all, but we need to get into this guys house for the... letter thing."

Kiara frowned. "It's not gonna be easy. From what I know, Noa keeps to himself."

"Well, you can all count yourselves lucky that I'm here," JJ said with a wide grin. "Because I have a plan."

Pope let out a sigh. "This should be good."

JJ strode to the centre of the room, as if about to perform in a Broadway show. "Phase 1: We sneak over there under the cover of night. Do it at a time when Noa's working at The Wreck or something. Phase 2: Break into his house and find the letter thingy or whatever. Phase 3: Leave undetected before he returns," he flung his arms out dramatically. "Voila!"

Pope interjected, "Or... we could, for once, not do something illegal? I don't think Noa would appreciate us breaking into his house. Plus, what if he comes back and we get caught?"

"But he doesn't have to know," JJ frowned. "That's kinda the whole point. And if he catches us we just mad dog him, easy."

"We don't have to break in necessarily," Kiara suggested, shooting JJ a look as she leaned against the doorway. "We just need to come up with a good excuse to get in there."

Talia rolled her eyes. "Sure, because 'Hey Noa, I know we just met, but can we come over and snoop around your house for a letter that's going to lead us to a bunch of gold?' is definitely going to sound normal."

John B, who was still half asleep on the floor, sat up and clicked his fingers at her. "Wait, you're a genius, Tal. You and Noa have already met, right?"

Talia exchanged a concerned look with Kiara and slowly nodded at John B. Where was he going with this?

"Perfect. You can distract him then. Ask him out somewhere and keep him busy, you know?" John B suggested.