golden wings melt like blue slushies // JJ Maybank

-Yeah, I don't care what song that we play, Or mess that we make-

"Kiara! I need those setups done by five!"

Kie squinted at her dad, and then squinted at the plastic boxes of overpriced health foods. Almonds packaged in groups of ten and glass bottles of sparkling water stacked up on the dock. "You know there are other people who work here, right?"

"Ain't none of em my children."

"I felt that," Pope said, and she could almost see the past horrors flashing in his dark eyes. He was leaning against the little cut out section of the long jetty where they'd dumped their schoolbags out of everyones way. "On a deep, emotional level, I understand that."

Water lapped against the wooden posts in the water, covered in barnacles and algae. It was still warm. Summer was only just ending, and it'd be scorching for at least another two or so months before the temperature went down to only just bearably hot. Kie needed some water from an expensive glass bottle.

JJ swung his legs happily. He'd definitely gotten his pep back. He was sitting on top of the bench. "So we going to the Bahamas or what?"

"What, for your honeymoon?" Pope scoffed, tapping away at his calculator. 

It was one of those fancy pants ones that you can open files on and type actual words. Like BOOBIES. But without using numbers. He had his math's book open on JJ's lap. "There's no way we're getting to the Bahamas. John B'll get nabbed sooner or later, so if we're going to clear his name, we need to have done it, like, yesterday."

Kie frowned. She pulled the bandana, the orange one that said 'cabin seven', whatever that meant, from her pocket. She'd probably grabbed it from Angelica's floor. "What about Iggy?"

"You think she's dumb enough to get caught?"

She nodded. "Fair."

"I'll tell you how we do it," JJ said, in a way that somehow made it sound like he'd actually spent some time thinking about this plan of his. Kie tied her curly hair up, looping the bandana behind her head and doing the knot she'd learnt after watching YouTube video's slowed down for hours when she was eight and decided bandana's were going to be her thing.

A truck came beeping into the parking lot. Probably to deliver more sun-dried tomatoes and feta stuffed olives. She loved feta stuffed olives. Last time she'd had them would've had to be at midsummers. Yummy food hadn't felt very important since then. "So you have a plan?"

"As a matter of fact I do..." JJ said. "We kidnap Rafe."

Pope laughed, dropping his pencils. He was doing test revision, whatever that meant. "I'm sorry, what?"

"We kidnap Rafe, tie 'em up, and stick a gun in his mouth, and just wait til he starts squawkin'," JJ said eagerly. 

There was not a thought behind those baby blue eyes.

Pope collected his spilt things and shoved them into his pencil case. It was a teenage mutant ninja turtles one from the bottom of John B's draws. They'd had an argument over it five years ago about who's it actually was. Pope had won. "Yeah, how exactly do you plan on clearing their names from a prison cell? Because that's a felony."

"Well at least I'll get to see them when your plan doesn't work," JJ argued defensively. "What is it then? I was just tryna keep it simple, you know, one stop and then we're done. Who needs details?"

"Guys," Pope huffed, putting down his maths problems. "All we need is a material witness. We saw Ward's plane fly right over all our heads with the gold inside of it. He didn't fly it. Someone else did, so they must've been right there on the tarmac. They saw Peterkin get shot. We just have to find whoever that was and get them to confess on record."