MONEY, MONEY, MONEY! jj maybank

005. the country club

warnings: sexual harassment

IN HER LIFE, Nicola could recall the three instances when she was near a gunshot. The first time was when she was five— her mother had brought her along to a shooting range in the mainland for some weird reason. Cola didn't know the sick reasoning she had at the fact that five year old her actually found it quite cool and refused to leave the area, since kids her age cried at the mere sight of the firearm.

The second time was more recent than the others— the night at the Boneyard. Topper Thornton had provoked them so much to the point that it had broke into a huge fight with John B. At first, Nicola wanted the fight to go on, but it got so... violent. Topper losing his shit, JJ losing his shit— John B fainting, it was a huge mess.

Third time was the next day. Or now. Nicola could only remember bits of it, too blinded by fear and anxiousness, the only thing that came into her head after everything was a long string of curse words. Everything came so fast— coming to a point where Kiara almost fucking died. At some point, there was crying and gasping involved between Kiara and Nicola. Again, the rest was blurry, so as they all walked back to the dock, Cola had a blank look on her face. She was still trying to comprehend everything that happened.

"What do you think it is?" Kiara asked as John B quickly opened the zipper to the bag that they almost got killed for.

"Gotta be money, right?"

Snapped back into reality, Nicola kneeled down beside John B, peeking over his shoulder to catch a glance of whatever was in the black bag. She was excited, and by the looks of it, so was JJ. "That or a couple of keys with street value to the low-to mid-mils!

"I just hope it's money." Nicola grinned, getting over at the shock. It was like a switch was flipped in her. "Or a black card!"

"Can we please just open the bag?" Pope bursted put harshly, voice cracking at the end of the sentence. Nicola looked at him in confusion— Pope was so calm, so levelheaded unlike the rest of them. This was probably the most frantic she's heard him.

"Wow, Pope." John B chuckled, "That's a rare outburst of emotion."

Despite that, he still took his sweet sweet time in unzipping the bag.

"Okay. You guys are literally killing me with anticipation." Pope sighed in annoyance, "Open the bag."

"Jeez." JJ mumbled with snide eyes.

"We almost died over this." Pope reminded with a scowl.

John B took out a bag from the big black bag and then, from the smaller bag he took out a silver cylinder canister. Nicola was growing more and more excited as he undid the layers of protection (it must be valuable, right? Why would be it be wrapped so dearly?) but as John B popped it open, Cola didn't expect what came out.

The smile on her face dropped due to disappointment. A compass. They almost died over a fucking compass.

"Oh, wow. Yup. That's about right." Pope uttered, "Good job, everybody. We found a compass."

"Great." Nicola echoed, closing her eyes in annoyance. "Absolutely great."

As the girl kicked the wooden frame that supported the roof (which she quickly regretted, it hurt her feet a lot) JJ leaned over to John B, who was still staring at the compass like it meant something. "Dude, what? It's not worth anything."

"This was my father's." John B breathed out, a small grin finding it's way onto his lips.

Instantly, Nicola and JJ glance at each other— she could remember when he had been missing. How terrible it had been for John B. At one point, the two of them came to a conclusion that Big John was dead, but the sudden appearance of the compass was unexpected.