Gold Digger// JJ Maybank- OBX

thirty five

SCARLETT BARELY got any sleep before JJ was knocking on her window the next morning. She had sneaked out the window, the same way she had sneaked in during the night, and the two joined up with Pope and Kiara. The four followed the length of the drain system, heading towards the end so they could search for the gun.

"This is the north drain." JJ said as they approached it. "It should've gotten washed into the gully." The four of them stepped into the trashed filled water. "So, if it got flushed out from this drain, it would've been pushed out to, like-" He gestured to the water around their feet.

"Somewhere in this trash." Pope said.

JJ nodded. "Exactly."

Kiara sighed, looking down at the mess. "Oh my God. People who use plastic should be shot."

Scarlett hummed in agreement. "Unless they recycle it properly. Which most people don't."

"Okay, personally, I love plastic." JJ voiced. "Use it every day. Love the stuff."

"Hopefully, you recycle it and don't let it flush into the ocean." Kiara said to him.

"I thought you two would say something like that, so..." Pope reached into his bag and pulled out some bags. "Trash bags." He held them up. Scarlett sent the boy a smile.

"Did you just proactively protect the environment?" Kiara asked, trying to hold back a smile.

"Maybe." Pope smiled.

Scarlett leaned into JJ. "See, that's how you get a girl to like you." She teased, smirking up at him.

Jokingly, he rolled his eyes. "Well, I won you over. Didn't I?" He ruffled her hair.

"Only took you like, ten years." She laughed, taking a trash bag from Pope. "C'mon. Let's clean this up." She smiled around at her friends.

⭐⭐⭐

"Well, that was fun." JJ commented sarcastically as he carried the last bag of trash out of the water. They had finally cleared all the plastic out of the drain water, but there was still no sign of the gun.

"We saved some animals from dying though." Scarlett smiled, patting Kiara's shoulder.

"If it's not in the trash, then it's gotta be in the storm drain." Pope voiced his thoughts.

JJ sighed, stepping down next to Scarlett. "It's in... it's the drain."

Scarlett rolled her eyes. "Of course it fucking is. Nothing is ever simple around here."

JJ reached into his bag. "Good thing I brought the crow."

"So, are we gonna do, like, rock, paper, scissors?" Kiara asked.

"No."

"Or alphabetically?" Scarlett suggested with a shrug. She watched as the boys worked together- using JJ's crowbar- to open the gate to the storm drain tunnel.

"Nah." JJ said, crouching down. "On three, Pope. One, two, three." He let out a grunt as the metal gate swung free of the concrete.

"Or, like, the oldest goes?" Kiara said.

JJ wiped a hand over his face as he stood up, chucking the crowbar on top of his bag. "In the sewer, there's this worm that you get when you're down there." He informed them. "It gets into your blood, and then it has to come out your pecker."

Scarlett's face scrunched up in disgust. "Ew. That's gross."

"So, uh... that would be a hard pass for me." JJ added.