𝐈'𝐦 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 the first one out of bed in the morning. The reason why? I used to wake up with my dad at 6 every morning to watch the sun rise.

So now, even if I got drunk the night before, I'm always up before the others.

So, when John B comes out of his bedroom at about 8 in the morning, he's not surprised to see me fully dressed and awake. I, however, am surprised to see him up this early. The rest of the crew usually don't get up until around 10 or 11. And that's the morning after they haven't drunk any alcohol.

"Fancy seeing you up this early," I quip as I look at him from over the rim of my coffee mug.

"Yeah, well. The stupid chickens won't shut up," he groans, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he comes over to me. He leans against the counter top across from me, his eyes still a little droopy.

"I mean, they're probably terrified. They were outside when Agatha hit," I remind him.

"Speaking of which, there's no cell service."

"No power, either," I tell him.

"Oh, come on," he complains before straightening back up and walking towards the front door to inspect the damage outside. I follow after him and look down at JJ as I pass by him on the pull out couch.

"Hey, JJ, you been outside?" I ask him.

"I have polio, freckles. I can't walk," JJ murmurs with his groggy morning voice, using the nickname only he calls me. He started calling me that when we first met in third grade. Said they were the first things he noticed.

"Oh, man," I hear John B yawn from outside. "That's no good."

"It's never good after a hurricane, John B," I yell from where I stand beside JJ.

"Agatha did some work, huh?" JJ asks John B loudly as he pulls me down to lay with him.

"Yeah, she did," he yells back.

"JJ!" I exclaim as his action of pulling me down causes me to spill some of my coffee on my clean, white shirt. Although it didn't completely soak my shirt, there's still a big stain now.

"What?" he asks, not seeing the damage he's done. I set the mug down on the side table before looking at him.

"You made me spill my coffee," I complain as I turn around so he can see. He looks down at my shirt and an apologetic look comes over his face.

"Sorry," he apologizes. "But, if it makes you feel any better, you still look hot."

"Of course I do," I retort, a sly smirk on my face.

"You're just too humble, aren't you?" he says sarcastically before reaching over to pull my shirt off.

"What are you doing?!" I exclaim quickly as I pull my shirt back down over my stomach.

"You don't want to wear a coffee-stained shirt all day, do you?"

"Well, no. But that doesn't give you the privalege of taking my shirt off."

"Just trying to help you out, baby," he says as an excuse.

"Don't call me that," I say as I crinkle my nose in disgust.

"I know you like it, freckles." He laughs as he boops me on my nose. I slap his hand away quickly before standing up to go change my shirt.

"I do not!" I yell as I run to my room and slam the door closed. I hear JJ's contagous laugh and can't help but giggle as well. I quickly grab a bathing suit from my dresser and some shorts, as some coffee spilled onto them, too. Stupid JJ. As fast as I can, I tug the bathing suit on and pull my shorts up as I open the door.

(𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫)

As I sloppily pull my hair into a messy bun, I walk outside and see John B trying to take the debris out and off of our boat. JJ leans against the wooden pole in the porch, shirtless as he drinks a beer.

"What you thinkin'?" JJ asks John B, not having sensed my presence yet.

"I'm thinkin'," John B huffs as he attempts to pull a rather large branch off the boat, "that storm surge pushed all the crabs out on the marsh maze. All those drum are gonna chase the crab."

"What about the DCS? Wasn't that today?" JJ asks, taking another sip of beer.

"Nah," I finally say, making JJ jump out of his skin. "They're not gettin' on a ferry."

"Geez, Y/n! You almost gave me a heart attack!" he exclaims.

"Good," I deadpan as I walk over next to him.

"Rude," he pouts as he wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me to his side. "This a new bathing suit?" he asks, looking me up and down.

"Yeah. You like it?" I ask as I look down at my outfit before looking back at him.

"Yeah. It's hot as f*ck," he smirks, causing me to lightly punch his stomach. I roll my eyes, but I can't help the smile that spreads across my lips.

"Come on, think about it," John B yells, interrupting us. "It's God tellin' us to fish."

☼☼☼

John B, JJ, and I were now on the H.M.S. Pogue, our boat, that was mostly cleaned of debris and branches. John B was at the wheel driving the boat, while JJ and I were at the front, JJ standing and me sitting.

"Yeah," John B nods at what JJ had just said.

"It's kind of a smuggler's boat," JJ continues.

"Uh... Good mornin'!" we all greet the small family at their dock, cleaning up just like everyone else.

"Sure hope Guffy's boat didn't sink," JJ remarks.

"He doesn't have insurance," I remind them, looking over my shoulder to see their faces.

"Yeah," JJ backs up.

"Hi, Miss Amy! You guys get through it?" John B asks, being the good neighbor he is. To the Pogues, at least.

"Still here," Miss Amy says back as she continues to stuff a trash bag.

"She totally looked at me," JJ says quietly, before we've even passed their dock completely.

"I saw it," John B says.

"You're so full of shit," I say, knowing he's joking. I shake my head as I smile in amusement.

"Dude, look at this place," John B mutters after a few seconds.

JJ whistles before yelling to no one, "Agatha, what did you do?"

"She is a crazy lady," I mumble as I lean my head back all the way to look at JJ without turning my head around.

"Hard-core, dude," JJ says to John B but looks at me, smiling. I quickly return his smile.

"Hurricane surge," I state, winking at JJ before looking back in front of me.

"Yeah," John utters, but I barely hear him over the breeze and the small waves made from the boat.

"We'll be cleaning this all summer," JJ sadly reminds us.

"That is my nightmare," I complain as we spy Pope and his dad on their deck. I give a wave, but only get a look of pure boredom from Pope.

"Well, look who we have here," JJ voices in a funny voice as we near the dock. He whoops before John B makes a radio sound, his hand covering his mouth, and announces,

"We have a safety meeting. Attendance mandatory." He makes another radio sound as our boat pushes up against the wooden dock.

"I can't. My pop's got me on lockdown," Pope sighs, clearly upset.

"Come on, man," JJ whines, making a static sound before continuing. "Your dad's a pussy. Over."

"Oh, I heard that, you little bastard," Mr. Heyward, Pope's dad, says.

"We need your son, Mr. Heyward. It's important," I beg, trying to be as respectful as I can.

"Yeah, and island rules. Day after a hurricane's a free day," JJ pipes up.

"Who the hell made that up?" Mr. Heyward asks in disbelief.

"Uh... Pentagon, I think. We have security clearance. I have a card," JJ makes up as he looks between me and Mr. Hayward.

"Think I'm stupid?"

"I'll do it tomorrow. I promise, Dad. Tomorrow," Pope promises as he looks at his dad.

"You think... No, no. Hell no. You doin' it right now."

"Get in the boat," John B whispers loudly.

"Come on, Pope," I smile, throwing an imaginary rope around him and pulling. "You know you want to."

"Make a run for it," JJ says as he comes up behind me, helping me pull on the "rope".

"Boy, if you get in that boat..." Mr. Heyward warns. But Pope is already jumping onto the boat.

"How does that feel?" JJ asks as Pope scurries over to John B.

"Go, go, go," Pope says hurriedly, nagging John B.

"Bring your ass back up here!"

"I promise I'll do it tomorrow, Dad."

"Whoo!" JJ whoops as he swings my imaginary rope around like a cowboy. I smile up at him as he does so.

"You gonna clean shrimp, clean fish!" Heyward warns again, yelling at his son, his arms moving through the air.

"Love you, Pops," Pope says anyways.

"You'll clean your dirty-ass room!"

"We'll bring him back in one piece," I promise.

"And I don't like your friends!" Mr. Heyward adds in before we can't hear him anymore.

☼☼☼

"Do you like it when I do this?" JJ asks me as he braids a chunk of my hair. With my head in his lap and my legs extended out in front of me, I look up at him and squint my eyes.

"Yeah. I like it when people play with my hair," I answer honestly. JJ smiles down at me before pushing the finished braid aside and grabbing another chunk of hair to work on. "Who even taught you how to braid hair?" I ask, only now thinking about the question.

"You," he responds simply. I give him a quizzical look, and he continues. "You would always braid your hair in school. I think you do it when you're nervous. Or when you're excited. Anyways, I would watch you do it and that's how I learned," he explains.

"Aw, JJ. That's so cute," I gush as I poke his cheek affectionately.

"Stop it, Y/n," he mumbles, a blush creeping into his cheeks.

"You're so cute, JJ," I continue.

"I'm serious Y/n. Stop it or I'll stop braiding your hair," he warns, his voice serious but his eyes teasing.

"Fine," I comply, dragging the i out. I hadn't intended to keep eye contact for so long, but the look JJ gives me almost sucks me into his eyes.

Weird.

Pope moving around in the corner of my eye causes me to look away from JJ., though. As I look around more, I see that we're at Kiara's dock. Kie, backpack and cooler in hand, walks across the dock when she sees us coming.

"Oh, top o' the mornin' to ya," John B greets as he stops the boat when it's up next to the dock.

"Good morning, boys and girl." Kiara smiles as she walks down the small ramp.

"Morning," we all say, smiling up at her.

"Whatcha got?" I ask curiously, sitting up and leaning in her direction.

"You got some juice boxes?" Pope adds.

"You know, just some yogurts and carrot sticks," Kie jokes casually as she stops next to the boat.

"How about my kind of juice box?" JJ asks hopefully as he tugs me back down.

"Yeah," she confirms.

"Brace for impact," John B warns as Kie steps onto the boat, using Pope's outstretched hand for help. As Kie sets her cooler down, she reaches into it before handing beers to JJ and I and taking one for herself.

"Salud," Kiara says, clincking her beer with JJ's and mine.

"Salud," I repeat as JJ says, "Skoal."

☼☼☼

"Bet you can't do this. Tell the world. A party trick," JJ tells us before heading up to the front of the boat.

"Terrifying," Kie mutters sarcastically.

"Hey, Pope. Can you go a little faster?" JJ asks.

"Oh no," I groan, knowing what's coming.

"Here we go," Pope murmurs before doing as he's asked.

I'm movin'," John B adds before walking to the back of the boat and sitting down. "Doesn't work. We've tried this like 6,000 times."

"I got this. It's gonna work!" JJ assures us as Pope speeds the boat up.

The wind blowing through his hair, JJ holds his bottle up, letting the beer fly out and into his mouth. Well, some goes in his mouth. Before I know it, large droplets of beer are flying toward me.

"You're getting beer in my hair!" I complain, as I'm sitting the closest to JJ, therefore getting the most beer out of everyone.

"Oh, my God," Kie exclaims. I look back at her to see that she too is getting beer in her hair.

"All right. All right!" Pope yells at JJ.

"All right, you're done," I announce, standing up next to him to grab the beer out of his hand.

"All right, stop!" Pope says more urgently. The boat stops suddenly—like very suddenly—and JJ and I tumble into the water.

"Jesus, Pope!" I hear Kie complain as I bob up to the top of the water.

"You okay, Y/n? JJ?" John B asks us as he looks down at us from the edge of the boat.

"Yeah," I groan.

"I think my heels touched the back of my head," JJ gasps out as he holds his head above the water.

"Kie, you okay?" John B asks, caring about us all.

"I'm all right," she moans.

"Pope, what did you do?" I ask him as I start to swim closer to the boat with JJ.

"Sandbar. The channel changed," he explains from inside the boat.

"No shit," JJ mumbles.

"Ugh, this is probably gonna mess this whole place up," Pope complains.

"Hey, I saved the beer, though," JJ says triumphantly.

"Congrats, JJ," I say sarcastically.

"Hey, I'm not the one who told you to stand up. You wouldn't have fallen in if you had stayed seated," he accuses. "So don't get your panties all in a—"

"Ew! Do not say panties ever again," I demand.

"Why? Does it get your panties in a twist?" he mocks, smirking at me. I slap his arm and frown.

"It's like saying moist or juicy," I explain.

"Ew!" he laughs as he splashes water in my direction.

"Exactly," I squeal as I push a wave of water back at him. This only begins a large water fight between us. As we're slashing water in each other's direction, I can feel a grin grow on my face. When I look through the spray of water, I can see the same smile on JJ's lips. "Oh my gosh! Stop it, JJ!" I laugh.

"You stop it," he laughs back.

"Hey guys... I think there's a boat down there," Pope interrupts, causing JJ and me to stop our water fight.

"Shut up. What?" John B says.

"No way," Kie seconds. JJ and I both look down into the water but it's hard to see anything.

"No, no, guys. I'm serious," Pope repeats. "There's like a boat down there. For real."

"Guys... is this..." John B mumbles.

"It's a boat!" Pope points out, his voice getting desperate.

"Holy shit, he's right. Let's go." Kie says in disbelief before walking away to take her shorts off. John B does the same but with his shirt.

"You think there's a dead body down there?" Pope asks as Kiara and John B both jump in. "Guys, wait up!"

"Get your ass in here!" JJ yells before going under the water.

"Come on!" I squeal before holding my breath and following after JJ.

We all swim down to the bottom to see a white, nice looking boat. Well, besides the fact that it's under the water. We quickly all swim back to the surface just as I begin to run out of air.

"You guys saw that, right?" JJ asks for confirmation as he pushes his hair out of his face.

"Yeah," I gasp out, a smile on my face.

"Yeah, I did," Kie and Pope reply.

"What the...," John B says in disbelief. By now we all have smiles on our faces, unable to hold in our excitement.

"That's a Grady-White," JJ tells us as we all swim over to get back on the boat. "A new one of those is like 500 Gs, easy."

"Oh my gosh!" I exclaim excitedly as JJ pushes me up so I can easily get on the boat.

"That's a primo rig," he says as the rest of them climb up with me.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge," John B explains.

"Maybe it hit the jetty or something," Pope suggests.

"You surfed the surge?" I ask in utter disbelief and worry.

"Yeah," he replies casually.

"That's my boy. Pogue style," JJ squeals. I hit him on the back of his head and he whines, looking up at me as he rubs where I hit him. "What?" he whines. I look at him with a look that says 'seriously?'.

"What the heck, John? Why would you do that?" I ask angrily as I turn in my brother's direction.

"Oh, you're in trouble, John B," JJ jokes. I turn back in JJ's direction before saying,

"And you let him do it?"

"Y/n," John B calls to me in a calming voice. "I'm fine, all right? You don't have to worry."

"Honestly sometimes I can't believe you're the older sibling," I mutter, holding my hand to my forehead.

"I'll hold those 12 minutes over your head the rest of our lives," he promises me, a triumphant smile on his face.

"Don't I know it?" I respond, rolling my eyes in the process.

"Okay, but do we know whose boat that is?" Pope asks, interrupting our sibling banter.

"No," John B answers, "but we're about to find out."

"Dude, it's too deep," JJ tells him.

"Oh, for the weak and feeble, JJ," my stupid brother groans out as he lifts the anchor out of the compartment in the boat.

"Well, I'm not resuscitating you. I'm just making that clear up front," JJ clarifies.

"That's fine," John B sighs.

"Try not to run out of air, okay?" I ask.

"I'll try." He rolls his eyes before a playful smile comes onto his lips. "I promise."

"Diver down, fool," Pope interrupts before saluting to John B. He salutes in return, the anchor in his other hand, before replying with,

"Diver down."

"Yeah, he is," JJ jokes before he shoves John B off the side of the boat.

"JJ," I sigh.

"What, baby?" he asks, turning his head to throw me a smile. Instead of answering, I just roll my eyes and shake my head at him. But as soon as he looks away, I let a smile come over my face.

Pope, Kiara, and JJ start looking over the side of the boat to wait for John B to come back up, so I decide to look with them. I'm starting to get a little bit worried, though, because it's taking longer than I'd hoped for John B to come back up.

"Should we go get him?" I ask nervously as I try my hardest to see anything in the water. Right after I say that, he pops up to the surface and starts coughing. I release a breath I didn't know I was holding in. "Oh my gosh," I gasp.

"That took forever!" Kie exclaims as she presses her hand to her forehead.

"Ah, jeez," JJ mutters we John B bobs up and down in the water.

"Any dead bodies?" Pope asks, not very fazed.

"Looting potential?" JJ adds as he pulls the anchor up. I slap his arm playfully before asking JB,

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. But, uh, I found this motel key," he says as he tries to catch his breath.

"A key," Pope deadpans, clearly unimpressed.

"Yes, a key, Pope," John B sighs as he swims over to the side of the boat.

"Great! You almost drowned for a motel key," I mutter. JJ comes up behind me and places his hand on my back before rubbing his hand up and down. I unconsciously lean into him and sigh in comfort.

John B rolls his eyes at my comment while he pulls himself up onto the boat and replies with, "I didn't almost drown, Y/n. I was fine."

"Ok, well it felt like it," I defend.

"Guys, we should report the wreck to the coast guard," Kie suggests. "Maybe we'll get a finder's fee."

"Yeah, and not work all summer," JJ complains as Pope begins to drive the boat away from the marsh. "Thanks, Agatha, ya batch."

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞
Second chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it! What do you think about Y/n and JJ's