Pandora and The Pogues [The Outer Banks/John B]

four

Kie woke Pandy the next day. Pandora's parents loved Kie, she was a smart girl brought up in a good family and she had made their daughter feel comfortable in the new town. They weren't so sure of Kie's other friends but they had yet to really meet them so weren't about to judge them just yet.

"C'mon" Kie yelled, "We're supposed to meet the guys in twenty minutes!"

"In twenty minutes," Pandy groaned in response, "Why did no-one warn me of this yesterday?!"

The girl clambered out of bed throwing on some denim shorts and an oversized t-shirt over her bikini. Going out not to school, rarely required normal underwear as Pandora had quickly learned, swimwear is far more practical. She tied a head scarf around her hair getting it out of her face.

The girls ran down the pier, food and drinks in head, just in time to jump aboard HMS Pogue.

The beers were cracked open in record time, setting the group up for a good day.

"Let me show you a party trick." JJ offered, climbing to the front of the small motor boat, "Hey, Pope. Can you go a little faster?"

"Here we go. I'm moving." John B moved backwards pulling Kie with him to safety.

"I got this. It's gonna work!" JJ exclaimed raising the bottle up in front his face. It was clear his aim was for the force of the boat moving forward to cause the beer to fly through the air into his mouth. When in actual fact all that happened was beer being splashed all over the front of the boat and in Pandy's hair.

Pandy turned her head to avoid beer in the face but instead came face to face with John B, who had his arm over Kiara, laughing together at the back of the boat. Pandora's mood fell a little at this sight but they were good friends and had been since before she had moved to the USA. She brushed it off, returning to JJ's friendly fun.

Everyone was telling JJ to stop when boat stopped suddenly, jerking forward, causing JJ to fly overboard. Pandora was thrown forward hitting her head on something, but that wasn't her first priority.

"Oh my god!" Pandora rushed to the side, looking to see if her friend was ok. "JJ, oh my god, are you ok?"

While the others recovered, Pandy smiled to JJ as he lay on the waters surface.

"I think my heels hit the back of my head, Princess," He groaned, "but I saved the beer."

Pandy chuckled lightly at the blonde boy, waiting for him to swim back to the boat.

"Guys, I think there's a boat down there." Pope exclaimed.

The group denied the Pope's claim through various shouts: "No way", "Shut up" and "You're joking".

"Guys, no, I'm serious. There is definitely a boat down there, for real." Pope stated with more certainty this time, persuaded the group to look over the edge to.

The five were quick to jump in the water and dive down to check out the wreckage. Thankfully there was no body to be found but instead what captured the group's attention was the type of boat.

"That's a Grady White." JJ exclaimed, "A new one of those is like 500 Gs, easy."

"Yeah. That's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge." John B revealed, it had probably seemed a minor thing at the time. However, John B made his mind up to find out whose boat it was which meant diving again. JJ told him it was too deep but John had his mind set. He grabbed the HMS page's anchor which would allow him to get to the boat a little quicker, giving him some more time to investigate. It wasn't safe though.

"John B." Kie said in a a serious tone, gaining his attention but he was never able to respond as JJ pushed him overboard.

After an uncomfortably long wait for the gang, John B returned to the surface. "I found a motel key." The group groaned as they returned to drylands, to report their findings to the coast guard.

Unfortunately after the chaos Hurricane Agatha brought, the coast didn't really care to talk to JJ and John, so they decided to go about things their own way.

They pulled up in HMS Pogue to the shitshow, meth lab of a motel. John B and JJ went up to the room whilst Pandora stayed with Kie and Pope in the boat as lookouts. They watched as the two boys disappeared in side one of the motel rooms and then they watched as the police pulled up.

"Shit." Pope muttered under his breath, trying to keep a low profile.

"That's not good." Pandy added.

 "We have to call them." Kie said, darting off the boat in the direction of the room.

Pope threw a stone at the window in the hopes of alerting the boys but missed. They were losing time. Pandora decided to take matters into her own hands lobbing a stone into the window, which John B quickly came to. They signalled to them that there were cops coming and the two boys scrambled out of the window, standing on a very small ledge to stop them from being visible from inside the room.

The situation was almost under control until JJ dropped a gun, causing Pandora to almost scream. The three ran back to the boat in the hope that JJ and John would make it back safely even having alerted the cop to look out the window. Eventually the boys were able to rejoin the group on the boat. But Pandora turned straight to JJ to give him a rinsing.

"A gun? Why the fuck do you have a gun? What fucking good could ever come from having a gun?" She exclaimed, panic evident in her voice.

"Hey... its better than the cops having it." JJ replied, waving the gun around without a care.

"I'm gonna lose my merit scholarship." cried Pope.

"Ugh, I cannot believe you, JJ." Pandora sulked, sitting in utter silence for the journey back to John B's. At one point John tapped her shoulder, asking if she was alright without a word. The girl just nodded in response, staring back at the floor.

***