Change//JJ Maybank

Chapter Four

We're all watching how the cops are taking a stretcher with a corps on it of a fishers boat. "Who's that?" John B asks a random girl. "It's Scooter Grubbs. He was out during the storm." She tells us. I frown, why the hell would you go out during the storm? "Check out this pic I got. Dead bodayy" She adds as she shows us the picture on her phone.

"What kind of boat did he have?" JJ asks. "Somehow that dirt bag copped a brand-new Grady-White. Everyone's out looking for it." The girl informs us. I lean closer to everyone and my arm accidentally brushes against JJ's. "I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so." I whisper as we all look at each other.

"Okay, guys, emergency meeting at the Chateau" John B says as he starts walking towards his car. A slight panic starts to creep in. Am I included in this emergency meeting or not? I grab JJ's wrist as he's about to walk away. "Is this emergency meeting a pogues-only thing?" I ask timidly, looking at the ground. "No, come on." He nods his head to John B's car.

We are all gathered on the porch of John B's house. "So we didn't see anything. We don't know anything." An obviously panicked Pope says. "We need to have total and complete amnesia" He commands as he looks at everyone. "Actually, Pope's right for once." I raise my eyebrows at JJ who's sitting beside me on the couch. "See, I agree with you sometimes." "Aw, look at that bromance..." I smile. "Don't push it." JJ looks back at me with a straight face before he starts smiling too.

"We gotta deny, deny, deny" JJ lights a cigarette. "Guys, we can't keep that money." Kiara tries to reason. "Okay, not all of us can afford unlimited data plans, Kiara." I look down at my hands feeling guilty for something that's not my fault. I mean, sure, my family has money but it's not my fault that I was born rich.

"We have to pass that off to Lana Grubbs. Otherwise it's bad karma." "That's kinda true...." I mumble. "Bad karma to be implicated in a felony too." Pope adds and I repeat my previous sentence. "We gotta go dark" Pope constitutes. "If that means we get to keep the money, Then I agree." "I don't agree." John B says in a slightly threatening voice. "Think about it. This is Scooter Grubbs we're talking about. Same dude that's buying individual cigarettes at the porthole. Shit, one time I saw this dude begging for change in the Save-A-Lot parking lot because he needed gas." I can see the same thought on everyone's face: How did he get a Grady-White? "We're talking about a dirtbag marina rat who's never had more than 40 bucks in his pocket, and all of a sudden he's got a Grady-White? Just sayin'." John B keeps going. "Something's definitely not right about this guy." I murmur.

"All right, so think about it, Pope. How does a marina rat get a Grady-White?" John B asks Pope. "Prostitution" Is Pope's first guess. "I gotta say it's not a bad guess but I would've gone with smuggling. Dealing earns good money but smuggling is a whole different thing." I say. They all look at me with wide eyes. "It's true! I saw it in a documentary!" I defend. "Honestly, that was my first thought as well." John B adds. "So there must be a serious amount of contraband in that boat."

"For the record, if that is a smuggling ship with illegal contraband on the inside of it... it probably belongs to someone else." Pope explains a slight panic obvious in his voice. "Minor details" Kie says. "They could come looking for it. Taking it would be catastrophically stupid." He tries to stop us from taking anything. "Well, only if you get caught." I smirk. "Besides stupid things have good outcomes all the time." JJ says as he shows the money he stole earlier. "All we need to do is figure out a way to get into the cargo hold of that wreck. Until then we just lay low. Just act normal." He adds.

"Right, and how do we do that?" Pope asks. "Kegger?" Kie suggests with a smile.

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A/N: Okay sorry for such a short chapter but school started again and then I got hospitalized so this week really sucked. I'll upload another chapter asap, maybe today.

Let me know what you think of the story as of now.