Chasing Sunshine | JJ Maybank

5 // Pilot

"Could have warned us sooner," JJ chuckled, our recent run-in with the police not phasing him in the slightest, "I mean, I barely had time to get Meg through the window before they walked through the door."

I wasn't nearly as lackadaisical about the situation, and had taken up post near the stern to quietly allow the adrenaline to slowly dissipate from my bloodstream while we cruised back to the marina. However, the sound of my name brought me back into the course of conversation. Kie cast an unamused glance to Pope and explained, "We would have, except Pope was on the math team."

"You were on the math team?" John B asked. I sniggered.

"Of course, you're talking the champion mathlete of the seventh grade."

Pope rolled his eyes at my jab and tilted his head mockingly, "Seems like someone's still pissy she came in second."

"First of all, I only lost by half a point! That's like a rounding error or-" I paused in my bitter ranting when he smirked successfully at the rise he managed to poke out of me, and mumbled a little quieter, "Beat you at the science fair like two weeks later, just saying."

John B and Kie tried to keep from laughing, but JJ pretended to cough into his fist, "Nerds."

I didn't have a chance to fire back before Pope waved his hand dismissively and brought the topic of discussion reeling back on track. "The cops took everything like it was a crime scene. Did you guys find anything?"

"Did we find anything? No, I don't think so..." JJ contemplated, sitting up from his lounging and patting around his chest only to pull out the handgun and one of the huge wads of cash, "Oh yeah, we did!"

My mouth drew into a tightly-scrunched line as he held up the stolen goods giddily. I probably could have throttled him for being so irresponsible but then his ghost would just haunt me for the rest of my days, just for the sake of spite. Kie and Pope erupted into disbelief, as expected.

"Dude, what?"

"What the hell?"

"Dude chill, come on-" JJ tried to reason.

"Why would you take that from a crime scene?" Pope demanded and JJ protested our indignation almost instantly.

"It's better than the cops having it!"

Standing up to smack him upside the head, I retorted with, "In what world is it better for you of all people to carry a firearm, rather than the police?"

He rubbed the back of his head with a frown. "That was rude."

"You serious?" Kie said, turning to John B, who per usual, took a neutral approach to his childhood friend's recklessness. He just shrunk from her glare and put his palms up to deflect responsibility.

"I'm gonna lose my merit scholarship," Pope moaned, looking back at the rest of us with wide, paranoid eyes. JJ slung an arm around his shoulder, and shushed him quickly before patting him lightly on the cheek.

"At least you have us right?"

Pope pushed him off. "I'm living the nightmare."

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When we arrived back into town, we were greeted but an unusual gathering of paramedics and emergency responders crowded around one of the docks the commercial fisherman used to tether their vessels. At first, I thought maybe there had been an accident out on the water, which wasn't terribly uncommon in that line of work, but judging by the black body bag they were wheeling away on a gurney, I'd guess it was more serious than that. John B walked up to one of the spectators making up the crowd forming around the perimeter. "Who's that?"