Carson Keller used to think her biggest problem was their rivalry against the Kooks, but that was until buried secrets rose to the surface. Now her biggest problems included a dangerous treasure hunt and a hot-headed teenage boy.
✰ season 1-3 ✰
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THEY WERE ALL out of breath by the time they sprinted to the woods to get back to the Twinkie to get out of there, both away from the cops and away from Barracuda Mike. Carson wasn't sure which she was afraid of more at this point.
"My dad is somewhere in South America right now, probably with a knife to his throat, and what are we doing? Moving weight? In goblin mode? What does that even mean, JJ?" John B said.
"How many times will you complain about me trying to help save your dad?" JJ yelled.
"Help is the exact opposite of what you're doing right now!"
"You know what, you're right. You're absolutely right," JJ said. "But you know whose fault that is? You and your treasure-obsessed father." John B immediately reached forward and shoved JJ hard in the chest, who just laughed in response.
"That's where we're going?" JJ said.
"That's where we're going."
"Hey, no. That's not where we're going," Carson said, taking a step forward to try to start the fight she knew was about to go down. She was just about to grab JJ to pull him away but before she could he shoved John B straight back. "Are you both serious right now?" They began wrestling until they ended up on the ground and that's when Carson just rolled her eyes and raised her hands in defeat. "You know what? Fuck it. Get it out of your systems." Unfortunately, they barely had any time to when they heard another voice.
"Howdy, boys! Carson," Shoupe greeted them. "You boys okay?"
"Are they ever really okay?" she said. His lips twitched up in the form of a small smile at her comment before he redirected his attention back to the boys.
"Yeah, we're, uh, you know," John B stammered. "We're good." Shoupe leaned down and grabbed a small black box from underneath the Twinkie.
"Tracker," he said. "Makes it a lot easier to keep an eye on you hoodlums." A call was made over Shoupe's radio about the U-Haul, which was both good because they were not with it but bad because they were not with it.
"Sounds like duty calls, so we wouldn't want to hold you up. We'll get out of your hair," JJ said.
"Hold on a minute. We just found a U-Haul full of drugs out near 158. Y'all wouldn't happen to be involved in that, would you?" Shoupe questioned.
"You see that? That's profiling, John B," JJ said in deflection. "And I really don't appreciate it. Like, just cause we're Pogues, you think we're drug dealers now? Nah, nah, we're not that desperate now, Shoupe." If only that weren't true.
"You've been too busy beating people up and breaking up parties," Shoupe responded.
"You don't know the whole story," Carson tried to reason with him.
"I'm sure I don't but I hate to break it to you, did, but I've got a warrant," he said. "Topper's pressing charges." Shoupe handcuffed John B despite their pleas to get him to listen to them, but they all knew there was no point. "Topper may be a douche, but you know better than that."
"Shoupe! Come on, he was messing with John B's girl. You'd do the same thing," JJ said.
"Shoupe, I get it, okay? But I can't be locked up right now," John B said.
"Well, you should've thought of that beforehand," Shoupe said.
"Why are you never on our side for anything?" Carson said.
"There are no sides, okay? I'm just doing my job," Shoupe said. He put John B into the back of his car before turning back to Carson and JJ. "You stay safe and stay outta trouble." JJ stepped forward before Shoupe could drive off.
"John B, listen. We're gonna fix it, and we're gonna get down to South America and save your dad. I promise, okay?"
"This cannot be happening," Carson said as she leaned her back up against the Twinkie in frustration. "What do we do now?"
"We'll figure something out. We'll get him out," JJ said.
"He beat the shit out of Topper. You think he's just going to let that go?" she pointed out.
"Maybe," he said. "We should just get back and tell the others."
✰
A few hours later Sarah had called them all up to meet at the Chateau, and they all were just hoping for some bit of good news at this point. Thankfully, that's exactly what it was when they all saw John B walk down the steps into the backyard.
"You gotta be kidding me," JJ said. Carson laughed and greeted John B with a hug, feeling more surprised than she expected to that he was actually there with them. I mean, if he could get out of jail for supposedly killing a cop then how hard could it be to get out for beating up a teenager? They always found a way.
"I have something I want to share with you guys," Sarah said. "I can get us down to the Orinoco."
"Are you serious?" Pope said.
"Yeah."
"Okay, and how's that gonna happen?" Cleo asked. Sarah paused and looked over at Carson for a moment before revealing her plan.
"My dad's gonna let us use the plane," she stated.
"Ward?" JJ said. He also turned to look over at Carson, which made them all do the same. She now had everyone waiting for her reaction, like they were all expecting her to explode at the sound of his name. She kind of did want to, but she didn't want to keep letting him win by getting a reaction from her. That's why she shrugged and tried to play it nonchalant.
"If we can take advantage of his money, let's do it," she said. That seemed to be the answer that Sarah was waiting for because she continued explaining the plan, appearing relieved that Carson was cool with it.
"We lay low tonight, then wheels up first thing in the morning," Sarah said.
"Okay, that's a lot to process. Your dad actually helping us," Pope said.
"I talked to him. He'll do it," she said.
"So we trusting Ward now?" Cleo said for clarification.
"We're trusting Sarah," Carson said. Sarah gave her a small smile of appreciation. Out of everyone, she knew the impact that Ward's betrayal had. It wasn't easy for either of them to get behind his supposedly good intentions, but they were basically out of choices so they had to be.
"I also just have one more thing to say," Sarah said. "Um, since we've gotten back from the island, I've done some things that I regret. A lot." She subtly glanced over at John B while saying this, but they all already knew what she was referring to. Now it was their turn to wait for John B's reaction.
"Yeah, um, I feel like we've all done a thing or two that we regret," he said. Carson connected eyes with JJ, and neither of them had to speak to know what they were silently communicating to each other. They were both thinking about their fight.
"And I don't... Poguelandia, guys," Sarah said. "It's all I've been able to think about. We were all together on that island, and it was a good thing, and I don't want to ruin a good thing. And I just wanna know, are we still all in? Are we still all together? Because I am." Carson glanced around at them all before speaking.
