miss americana | jj maybank

five | pogues vs kooks

five | pogues vs kooks
[101: pilot]

Another text came from JJ the next morning, this one with slightly more appeal to Tess in the moment.

J: boneyard bash. all welcome. see you there.

Tess bit her lip and moved down from her bedroom, passing Rose on the way who promptly told her to slow down. She continued, out the back door and around the pool to where Sarah stood with a tennis racket, swinging at swooping birds over the grassy knoll where mice were hiding.

"Gotta say, this is not what I expected to walk out to," Tess said.

Sarah smiled and picked up another racket from near her feet. "Hey! Here, help me. Too many mice for just one person."

Tess cocked her head to the side, but accepted the racket, half-heartedly swinging it above her head where predatory birds flew. "Fucky buddy J says boneyard party."

Sarah gasped. "He's a pogue! Kooks don't throw boneyard parties, they crash them. The clues are assembling."

"Whatever," Tess said with a roll of her eyes. "That's my point, Kook. Wanna crash?"

"Are you, like... inviting me?"

Tess glanced away, only then realizing that she was. She often had access to parties on both sides of the island, but seemed to have momentarily forgotten that Sarah was a true Kook who wouldn't be aware of the goings-on of Pogue social gatherings. Tess just saw the text and, instinctually, after their comradery the previous night, wanted Sarah there. "So what if I am?"

"Then I'm in!" Sarah returned to exuberantly jumping up and down as she swung her tennis racket at the birds.

"Sarah!" a voice called from behind them. Tess turned to see Ward approaching with a woman behind him. "Tess, there you are, too, good."

"I'm busy!" Sarah called backwards without looking away from her task.

Tess dropped her racket and approached, shaking the woman's hand politely. Ward seemed momentarily pleased by her manners and, reactively, Tess wished she instead spit on the woman's shoes.

"What are you doing?" Ward asked his biological daughter.

"The burrows filled with water from the surge," Sarah explained. "The birds are having a field day."

"The birds have to eat, too, Sarah." Momentarily, Tess saw the point of differences between Sarah and her father. She always saw that the two were thick as thieves, in part due to their perceived similarities. But Sarah was often like this, empathetic where Ward wasn't. She cared for nearly every living creature. Sarah was a protector. Ward simply believed that predators had to hunt, disregarding the fate of their prey. "It's the cycle of life is what it is sweetheart," Ward continued. "Now, come on."

"I can't be a part of it. First they came for the mice, Daddy..."

"I have an actual human being here, that you might help."

Sarah quickly shook the woman's hand and offered her name. Tess turned towards Ward, waiting for the eventual explanation as to why he brought this woman to them.

"This is Lana Grubbs, Scooter's wife. Now, you two were storm prepping with him, right?"

"Yeah. He helped us latch the cabin on the Druthers," Sarah said, glancing towards Tess who had been right alongside them.

"Last night? Did he go out after that?" Ward asked.

Tess scoffed. "It was pelting by then," she murmured.