haven murphy had nothing to lose. everything was different after sarah cameron's birthday party, the night her father died. haven just didn't feel right in her own skin. then, on a whim, she befriended pope heyward and got sucked into a wild goose h...
"SO, HERE'S THE PLAN. We need to look for the wheat near the water like it said in Denmark's letter," John B declared after several minutes of creeping around in Mrs Crain's maze-like yard. Haven swore it was never ending, from the dreary cluster of trees to the array of statues like the one that had scared JJ. It was hard to know where to even begin.
"Okay, what kind of water?" Pope asked. "Like, pond water?"
JJ cackled, momentarily drawing everyone's attention to him. "Bong water?"
Arden let out a sigh. "Yeah, JJ. Pope Heyward just said bong water."
"No, it—" John B cut himself off with a shake of his head, clearly deciding that correcting JJ's smart remarks wasn't worth it for once. "It said just look for water, okay?"
"That's the shittiest secret message ever," Kie grumbled to herself, shoving John B aside to keep walking.
"You want to complain a little bit more, Kie? Nobody said it was going to be easy."
Their voices faded as they wandered on ahead, leaving Haven and Pope stuck with the two idiots of the group. Arden was busy inspecting a series of creepy-looking garden gnomes while JJ hummed to himself, causing the other two to sigh and share a disbelieving look. Mrs Crain was definitely going to catch them, and it'd be because of Arden Kim and JJ Maybank.
"Okay, I'm going to search the North-East Quadrant and you can search the North-West Quadrant," Pope declared, pointing a finger into JJ's chest to get his attention.
"Ooh, I'm coming with you, Pope," Arden grinned as she skipped over to his side. She linked their arms together, shooting an obvious wink in Haven's direction while JJ looked on unimpressed. "Haven can go with JJ."
"Looks like I'm going with JJ," Haven sighed as Pope shot her a helpless shrug. Arden was forcefully dragging him after her, leaving Haven to linger awkwardly while JJ cursed to himself, staring at their allocated section in horror. "They've given us the decapitation quadrant."
It took Haven a second to realise he was speaking to her. "Oh, um—"
"Well, are you coming or not?" he asked as he made his way over. "I'm not waiting around for you."
"Oh. Okay."
The search was silent. Haven tried several times to break it, making jokes about the creepy faces on the statues. Sometimes, it seemed to work, and JJ would crack a smile before forcing a neutral expression back onto his face. Other times, he pretended like she wasn't even there at all. It left Haven feeling stupid and defeated as they eventually joined the others again. She didn't even comment as John B lead them into the basement of the house, just sighing as she swatted at some spider webs with a shiver of disgust.
