ℳ𝒶𝓎𝒷ℯ 𝓃ℴ𝓉 𝓎ℯ𝓉－

Butterfly

Grace knew she'd be in deep shit if she got
caught. The smell of spray paint heavy in the  humid air, her mask protected her mostly from it, but every once in a while she still smelt a whiff of the pungent fumes. She knew she could just grab a pencil and jot down her creations on canvas paper. But the smooth glide of paint against the plaster was much more satisfying. Hues of blue and purple dripping over the simple cream surface, covering the plainness. Thats how she imagined kooks were like. Plain, simple people covered in beautiful colors to hide the ugliest parts of them. The lines of the painting intersected eachother with an intricate design. Looping and swirling imperfectly, grace never minded imperfections, she had many herself. In her mind, imperfections were normal,beautiful even, maybe that's why she hated kooks so much. With a happy sigh, she pulled back and admired her work as she removed the mask, the wall was dripping with fresh paint, creating a large monarch butterfly. Now with the most complex part done, she grabs her paint brush and signs the bottom, with the initial's, "G.F". Satisfies with her she bends over to pick up her supplies, gathering her array of brushed and cans. She looks at the butterfly one more time before she walked away. Walking through the doorway she stopped as she heard a thump. Faint voices drifted up the stairs and she quickly bent down
"shit"
She moved slowly towards the stairs, and down the steps one by one. Carefully settling her pressure, as to not cause any noise. She reached the last step when to the left of her she heard laughter, and knew she has to get out, and fast. With quick movements she bolted towards the door. Suddenly the breath was knocked out of her. She hit the floor, arms wrapped around her midsection. The arms holding her were muscular and she coughed as she struggled against the vice grip. She heard a male voice
"guys!"
Worry settled inside of her, as the strong arms flip her around. She was faced with a group of four. Three guys,one girl, all staring down at her. With a swift right hook she punched the boy holding her down. She got up clumsily and tried to run but the boy grabbed her ankle just as fast, pulling her off her feet once again. Flipping herself over she got on top of him, trying to grab his arms. Both of them struggled to gain leverage. Before either of them could they were pulled apart.
"JJ chill out!" The girl yelled.
Grace stood up and swayed slightly.
"What hell are you doing here?!" The one she punched asked.
"Well I could ask you the same thing!" Grace yelled back.
All of them stood there in silence for a moment.
The dark skin boy glanced over, and noticed her bag full of supplies. Picking up one of the cans he looked at grace.
"Do you do art?" The boy asked as he walked towards her.
"Yeah,I do." Grace replied as she grabbed the can.
"Yeah well you're also a fucking bitch" the angry boy yelled.
"Woah calm down JJ. Sorry he's not the brightest." The brown hair boy said.
There was silence.
"So uh you wanna show us your work?" The dark skin boy said.
Grace looked at him skeptically. "Yeah sure I guess."
Grace grabbed her bag of supplies, and showed the group the way. They barely spoke, but once they reached they reach the wall they bursted into chatter. They all conversed for a while
The brown haired boy spoke to grace. "Sorry we all kinda got off on the wrong foot, I'm John b"
"Nice to meet you,John b, my name is grace." She said simply.
"That's a really pretty name grace, I'm Kiara."
Grace smiled.
"My name is pope, it's nice to meet you."
Grace looked over at the blonde boy.
"Yep and I'm JJ." He rolled his eyes
Grace glared at him.
the dark skinned boy walked over to the painting.
"Woah,this is honestly amazing." He said as he ran his fingers over it.
The group walked over to where he was standing.
They all were admiring the artwork,as the silence was interrupted by a car door slamming. John b shushed everyone and moved towards the window. As he looked out he saw the security men walking towards the house.
"Yep that's our sign to go" he said as he grabbed his backpack.
"This is gonna be fun" JJ said as he smirked.
"Just follow us okay?" Kiara said.
Grace grabbed her bag of supplies and flung it over her shoulder. She followed John b and the others down the stairs as she heard one of the security men behind her.
"Hey! Stop right there!" He said as he ran towards them.
"Oh shit." She said as she continued to run.
She was behind JJ as they turned a corner, and he slid, almost crashing into her.
"Dude watch where you're going!" She yelled as she dodged him.
They continued running out of the house, she followed as the jumped the fence, she jumped up as one of the security men grabbed her foot.
"Get down here you little shit!" He said as she kicked him in the face.
She jumped down and ran until she saw them waiting and waving her down in a van.
She jumped in the van and sat next to Kiara, JJ was taunting the security guard with a beer. "They don't pay you enough for this man."
"JJ stop you're gonna kill him" Kiara giggles.
"Hey uh John b do you mind dropping me off home? Grace asks.
"I got you" he reply's.
Grace jumps out of the van, and waves them goodbye. She walks up to her rusted door with dirty glass. Her family has lived in this house since she was little. Opening the door, she ventures down the hallway to her mother's room, opening the door quietly.
Her mother is reading, as she sets her book down and takes her reading glasses off she asks Grace, "where have you been?"
She glances down to see graces supply bag.
"Your graffitiing again? She stares at her daughter. "What have I told you about that?"
"Mom it's fine, it's time to take your meds."
"Not until you stop vandalizing, Gracelyn." She gives her a stern look.
"Mom just take the damn pills!" Grace raises her voice. Her mother stares at her.
"Your father would be so disappointed in you."
Graces expression changed.
"Fine, take them or not, I don't give a shit." She opens the door and walks out.
As she opens her door she shuts it behind her and sits at her desk. As she looks in the mirror she sees her dad's face looking back at her. His face and hers were identical. When she was fourteen years old, he took his own life.
She tried to block it out of her mind, but he's always with her. She snaps out of her thoughts, and needs a distraction. Walking out her front door, the wind is blowing and it's lightly. Hurricane Agatha was on its way, but Grace has always loved the outdoors, whenever something happens she likes to go on walks.
As she starts walking down the street she hears a vehicle behind her, she ignores it until she hears a familiar voice.
"Hey grace! We're all hanging out if you want to join us?" John b asks.
JJ is in the passenger seat glaring his eyes towards her.
"Uh I mean yeah? Sure?" She says I confidently.
Kiara opens the back door of the van,she crawls inside and they all end up in conversation.
Grace enjoyed their company more than she thought she would. They all are kind to her, expect for JJ. Always darted harsh eyes toward her, and his snarky remarks,which she chose to ignore.
Nighttime fell as they all bursted into laughter. Graces eyes grew tired and she wasn't as talkative before.
"Hey grace, if you're tired I have an extra room? We were thinking of going out to the marsh tomorrow to fish after the hurricane, you're welcome to join us."
She looks up at him with relief.
"Okay yeah, that sounds nice." She replied tiredly.
John b gets up and gestured her over to show her the way.
As she stands up JJ looks at her, and quickly looks away. Slowly she follows John b.
"Okay there extra pillows on the couch if you need them and I'll grab you some blankets." He smiles.
Shooting him a small smile back she observed the room. It's small,nothing but a bed. The walls were made out of spruce logs, she ran her fingers over the wood.
"Okay here's some extra blankets. Sorry it's not much. If you need something I'm just down the hall." He says as he closes the door.
Crawling into the cold bed, she piles the blankets on top of her,and fell into a cozy sleep.
The next morning she woke up to the sound of birds chirping and the smell of fresh rain, there was a knock on the door.
"Hey it's Kiara, can I come in?"
Grace slowly sat up to rub her eyes.
"Yeah of course" she groggily replied.
"Hey sorry, I brought you some of my swimsuits to borrow for when we go out to the marsh today." She smiled.
"Thank you, that was sweet of you." Grace shot her a small smile.
Kiara smiled back and closed the door. One of the swimsuits was a coral and teal design, and the tiger was plain black, as much as Grace loved design, she decided on the back suit. Throwing it on her body, she put her button up over it with her shorts, grabbed the other swimsuit and walked out the door. Kiara was sitting on the couch.
"Thanks again for the swimsuit" she says as she hands her the patterned one.
"No problem." Kiara replies.
Grace followed her as she stood up, and made her way out to the boat. Sitting there waiting for the girls was John b and JJ. Of course JJ was already shooting grace a scolding look. Getting on the boat,she moves to the back and sits down.
"We just have to go pick up pope and we'll be good." John b says as he drives the boat away.
"Hi Miss Amy! You guys get through it?" John b asks.
"Still here." She replies.
JJ looked at John b. "She totally looked at me."
"I saw it, dude look at this place."
JJ whistles. "Agatha what did you do?"
"She's a crazy lady" says John b."
"Hard core dude,hurricane surge." JJ says.
This is the first time grace has heard him talk and not sound pissed off. They slowly were pulling up to a dock with pope standing on it.
"Well,look who we have here" John b says excited.
"We have a safety meeting attendance mandatory" he says like he's speaking into a walkie talkie.
Pope looks at us. "I can't my pops got me on lockdown." He sighs.
JJ stands at the front of the boat. Grabbing his fake walkie talkie. "Come on man, your dad's a pussy over."
Popes dad walks up from behind him, "oh I heard that you little bastard."
"We need your son" John b says.
"Yeah and Hurricane rules. A day after a hurricane is a free day." JJ says with his arms out.
Popes dad looked at them like they were idiots, which they are.
"Who the hell made that up?" He asked annoyed.
"Uh Pentagon I think, we have security clearance, I have a card."
Pope,his father,and JJ start arguing.
John b looks at pope. "Get in the boat"
"Make a run for it brother make a run for it" JJ adds.
Pope drops his hose and jumps onto the boat. His dad is yelling at him as we slowly pull alway. They are an interesting group, but grace thinks she'll fit in well with them. Kiara goes to sit by grace and is telling her about her interest in wildlife and saving the world. John b hands out beers to everyone, grace takes it, but sets it down instantly. Kiara looks towards the front of the boat as JJ walked up there.
"Hey pope can you go a little faster?"
"Oh god here we go, I'm moving." John b backs away.
JJ is standing at the edge of the boat with a beer in his hand trying to get it to go in his mouth.
"Oh my god you're getting beer in my hair" Kiara says.
"Yeah and beer in my eyes." Grace says.
"Alright alright you're done" John b says."
All of a sudden JJ flies forward off the boat
"Oh shit" grace says.
Everyone rushes towards the front of the boat.they all look down as JJ slowly emerges from the water on his back.
"Jesus pope." John b says
"JJ are you good?" Pope says.
"I think my heels touched the back of my head." JJ says in pain. "Pope what did you do"
"Sandbar,channel change." He says
"No shit" JJ says as he swims towards the boat.
"Guys, I think there's a boat down there." Pope says.
"Yeah right" Grace chuckles.
"No guys I'm serious look there's a boat".
Everyone looks off the edge of the boat. As they look down they see a white boat the bottom of the ocean.
"Oh shit he's right let's go." Kiara says.
Everyone starts jumping in the water. Grace stands at the end of the boat hesitantly. She decided not to jump in, and sits back down. They all swim back up to the surface and climb back onto the boat. John b has a motel key in his hand.
"Guys we should report this to the coast guard, maybe we could get a finders fee" Kiara says.
"Yeah and never work the rest of our lives, works for me." JJ reply.
Grace is sitting at the back of the boat once again. Kiara goes back to sit by here, and John b drives the boat back towards land. Everyone talked a little bit, but Grace was silent. She looked up to see JJ staring at her. This time his look was different. He didn't have the same hatred he has before. But he instantly looked away. They arrived to the coast guard, John b lead and walked up to the front desk.
"Excuse me, me and my friends found a boat"
The man is ignoring him, until he finally speaks "I don't care about your friend's boat right now."
"Well that went well" pope said.
"Why don't we just go check out the motel?" Grace says.
Everyone looks at her for a minute.
"Yeah actually that's a good idea, let's go!" John b says as he swirls the motel key around his finger.
They make their way to the motel, and Kiara and pope decide to stay on the boat.
"Be careful okay?" Kiara says.
They nod. John b looks at Grace. "Do you wanna come check it out? Your first adventure?"
"Uh yeah sure I'll come." She says quietly.
JJ groans and rolls his eyes. He leads the way and John b is right next to him. Grace notices how destroyed this place got, she feels a little empathy inside her. John b and JJ are talking about how Kiara is into John b, although Grace doesn't see it she just listens. They arrive at the hotel room.
"Looks like it's this way" John b says as he looks at Grace.
JJ walks closer to the door. "Housekeeping" he says in a high pitched voice.
"What the hell was that." Grace says as she chuckles.
She grabs the key card out of John bs hand and opens the door carefully. All three of them walk in, looking for anything connected to the boat. John b bends down and sees a safe, he walks over by JJ at the night stand and finds a piece of paper, he types in the numbers and the safe opens .
"Holy shit." He says as he picks up a wad of cash.
JJ rushes over by his side "holy shit dude" as he picks up the gun that's inside the safe.
Grace turns around and looks at him "dude are you a fucking idiot put that down."
"Oh so now she speaks." He says.
"JJ she's right we don't want to make our own incriminating evidence."
"Okay fine but just take a picture first." He says as he poses.
"You want me to take a picture of you really." John b says annoyed.
Meanwhile outside the cops are on their way up to the hotel room, pipe and Kiara jump off the boat and run towards the window. Kiara hands pope a Rock and he throws it. He misses.
"Dude did you ever play football?" Kiara asks.
"No I was on the math team!" He reply's.
Kiara grabs another rock, she throws it towards the window and hits it right in the middle.
"Wait did you hear that." Grace says as she walks towards the window. She opens it to see Kiara and pipe pointing towards the door. With their lips saying the words "cops."
"Shit guys the cops are coming." Grace says.
They both stop their bickering and walk towards the window, they look down at their friends and then eachother.
"I have an idea guys follow me." John he says.
John b opens the window and they all climb out of it.
"What the hell are you doing?" Kiara whispers.
John b goes to be right side of the window and JJ and Grace go to the left.
"Here you hold onto that." JJ says as he point towards some siding.
Grace holds onto the siding as JJ moves behind her, he grabs onto her and they all stand silent. They hear the cops rummaging through the hotel room, Grace peeks her head and looks into the room to see the cops taking some of the cash. They continue standing there and the silence was interrupted when the gun fell out of his pocket.
"Shit." He whispered. The sheriff walks towards the window and looks out of it. It felt like they were holding their breathe forever. The sheriff walks away and they sigh of relief.
They get back onto the boat finally. John b started up the boat again.
"Did you guys find anything?" Pope asks.
"Oh did we find anything." JJ laughs as he holds up the gun and a wad of cash.
"Dude what the hell?" Kiara says.
"Oh my god." Grace says as she shakes her head.
"That's it I'm gonna loose my scholarship." Pope throws his hands up in the air.
"Thats okay pope because you have us." JJ says.
They return back to the chateau, and go inside.
"You know what sounds hella nice right now." Grace breaks the silence.
"What" JJ groans.
"A keger?" Grace asks.
"Hell yeah." John b smiles.
They all make their way to the bone yard, Grace makes her way to a log and sat down. John n and Kiara follow her, as time went by more and more people arrived, Grace wasn't very social, but she was warming up to her new "friends."
"Sarah get down!" A blonde haired boy says.
A girl was standing on one of the lifeguard towers.
"What is she doing here." Kiara says.
Sarah Cameron. Kiara and her were best friends in the ninth grade, enemies in the tenth grade. Grace recognized her, but never knew her. They made their way by the water, Grace didn't drink, but the rest of them were. JJ walked over to Sarah "hey Sarah want a drink?" He laughs.
"Um no but thanks."
"I'll take it" her boyfriend says to JJ.
"I actually wasn't asking you but maybe if you say pretty please." JJ says
"Oh but pretty please." He says.
"No, so Sarah" JJ says as her boyfriend pushes him.
John b rushes over to them "JJ man it's not worth it."
"You're all just some dirty pouges!" The boyfriend says.
John b turns around and pushes him. They begin to fight. Punching one another. John b stands up and punches the boy towards the water, the boy grabs John be and pushes his head underwater.
"Don't make me drown you like your old man John b" he says.
Everyone starts freaking out.
"Hes drowning him." Pope says.
"I know" Kiara says in disbelief.
Grace has never witnessed something like this, she wants to help him but doesn't know how, she looks beside her to JJ, and remembers what he found at the motel.
"Topper stop!" Sarah yells.
Grace looks at JJ "you have a gun." She reminded him.
He looks at her and grabs his bag, pulling out the gun. He walks up to topper and puts it against his head.
"Yeah you know what that is." JJ says with the gun in hand.
"We're good we're good" topper says as he lets go of John b.
"Now everyone get the hell off of our side of the island." JJ yells as he lets out two gunshots.
The gunshots rang through out graces ears, she covers them. Shes never liked loud noises.
John b falls over in the water. Grace rushes over to him. "Guys!" She calls out.
The next day Grace woke up in the cheatu. It was a weird night for everyone, so they all crashed at John bs place. She slept in the guest bedroom once again. She woke up to the noise of John b talking to someone. She walked out of the room out into where he was, he was standing there.
"Hey everything okay?" She asked.
"Yeah, just sheriff peterken by."
Grace sat down on the couch.
"Hey so JJ wants to go back out to the marsh to check out the boat more, i was gonna go to my bosses house to get the diving tanks." He says.
"Do you need any help?" She asks.
"Yeah actually that would be great."
Her and John b headed for the druthers, once they arrived, they got on the boat and grabbed the supplies together, and headed back for the others. Once they get back to the cheatu the rest of them got on the boat. They headed out to the marsh once more
"Oh so you guys grabbed empty tanks." Kiara says
"This one's a quarter full,that's enough for one of us" she says as she shakes her head
"Does anyone know how to dive?" Grace asks.
"I read about it once." Pope says
"Oh great pope read about it so somebody's gonna die" Kiara said
"I'll go down." John b says.
Everyone helped him get into the gear, pope explained to him how to come up. He jumped down into the water.
Grace turned her head as she heard sound of another boat "guys those are cops" everyone looked in that direction.
"Mind if I hop on?" Shoupe says.
"Not at all" everyone mumbled.
The sheriff's stepped on board to check all of our safety equipment. "Where's your friend you're usually with?"
"Oh he's at work." Grace smiles.
"Alrighty then, make your way out soon." He says as he steps off the boat.
"Will do sir." JJ replies.
As the sheriffs left the group looked over the edge of the boat as John b came back up.
"Did you find anything? JJ asked.
"Did I find anything." John b chuckled.
"That's my boy!" JJ yelled.
"Hey guys there's a boat over there" Grace says
Everyone looks over to see two men in a boat.
"Let's go guys" Kiara says.
JJ starts grabbing the anchor "don't wait up for me guys go!" He yells. John b starts the boat and starts driving away.
"Holy shit guys do they have a gun?" Grace says
The men start shooting at the boat.
"Shit! Everyone get down!" John b yells
Everyone ducks down and Grace has an idea to stop them. Grace stands up and goes to the side of the boat, grabbing the fish net.
"What the hell are you doing sit down!" JJ yells.
Grace throws the fish net and bends down, the fish net gets caught in there boat causing them to abruptly stop. John b turns around "holy shit! That was awesome!" He laughs
Kiara high-fives grace. They make their way back to the cheatu and back into the dock. The all stand behind John b as he kneels down to open the bag. When he opens the bag he pulls out a compass.
"Okay perfect we risked our lives to find a compass." JJ says with his arms in the air.
John b continues to stare at the compass.
"Are you okay?" Grace asks.
"It doesn't mean anything dude it's a compass."
John b doesn't look at them.
"This was my father's."