Sunflower || JJ Maybank/Cassandra Routledge

4. Pinky Promises To Be Okay

Pilot 1.04

...deep inside, she wants to cry until she can't anymore. What Rafe did and what could have easily happened is tearing her apart.

The morning sun blinds Casey as she turns in her sleep. She prepares herself to bump into JJ but instead, she rolls to the other side of the bed. The girl doesn't focus on JJ not there anymore, figuring he must have gone home after she fell asleep like she asked and pulls the blanket up past her face. But as she lays there, the feeling of being watched overpowers her ability to fall back asleep. She slowly lowers the blanket and looks around the house, jumping when she sees Sheriff Peterkin standing in the doorway to her left. The woman doesn't say anything to her and walks straight to John B's room.

It takes Casey a moment to catch her breath from the unexpected guest but she eventually sits up as the cop emerges from her brother's room. "Where'd you get that?" Peterkin asks, motioning to the girl's face.

"Oh, uh..." Casey has yet to see her face but she can feel the soreness surrounding her eye, which very easily tells the girl she has a massive black eye. "Surfing accident." She replies, knowing full well the Sheriff isn't going to believe her. Peterkin knows her and John B. She knows the Pogues and they're constant hobby of getting into fights.

Before Peterkin can say anything, John B stumbles out of his room and looks straight at his sister, wondering why the Sheriff is in their house at the crack of dawn. "Sorry to break in like this, but DCS called. They wanted me to check on you two. See how you're doing." She informs them as she leans against the wall. "So how are you, besides the family resemblance?" Casey looks over at John B, finally registering the huge bruise around his eye as well. A part of her wants to be pissed that John B has a black eye but the stronger part makes her smile, knowing the Sheriff has a point. The two are definitely twins.

"Oh, no, we're great. Yeah, fantastic. Uh...thanks for coming by." He replies, walking up to the cop and motions toward the door.

The Sheriff raises her eyebrow at him, ignoring the gesture and walks further into the house. "I'm so glad to hear you say that, John B, but I heard a few things that worried me. Let me see if I can remember." She pauses when she stops next to the family pictures hanging on the wall. "Oh, yeah, one of the things I heard was that your Uncle Teddy, your guardian, hasn't been in the state for three months."

"Yeah, that's false." John B lies as he walks towards his sister. He gives her a look to keep her mouth shut, which she immediately nods in agreement to, but as he gets closer, he can really see the purple around her eye. He lightly grabs her chin, making her head tilt up so he can inspect every inch of her face. Casey quickly swats his hand away, more worried about why the Sheriff is in their living room than the stupid bruise. John B glares at his sister as she pushes him away, hating that Topper is the one that gave it to her but he turns around when Sheriff Peterkin begins to speak again, almost forgetting they have company.

"You don't have to say anything. I know it's true, I called school." She continues to walk around the house, taking a mental note of all the trash laying out. "They said you used to be good students, now you both failing' all your classes." Casey cringes as Peterkin stops at the table in the middle of the house and grabs the first suspicious thing laying out. Of course it has to be one of JJ's half smoked blunts.

Before the two can get into trouble for the roach laying out, John B laughs. "No, no, I'm only failing one and its history. The dudes a dick, he's out for me and Andy's only failing two. Gym, which who needs that when we surf all day and science, but she's never been really good at science."