BABYDOLL // JJ Outer Banks

twenty-six

hannah strutted casually beside kie as she took in the scene in front of her. the area was swarming with rich kooks engaging in meaningless conversations, all decked out in the most expensive jewelry and clothes.

hannah scrunched up her nose. "remind me again why i agreed to come to this?"

"because i'm your best friend," kie grinned. "oh, look! there's pope." kie dragged her tanned friend over to where pope was cleaning oysters.

"excuse me, sir," kie spoke in a posh british accent, "do we have to shuck these ourselves?"

pope groaned before turning to see the two girls smiling widely at him.

"because it might mess up our costumes," hannah finished.

pope chucked at the two. "well, we wouldn't want that now, would we?" pope leaned forward to give them each the pogue handshake. "that accent was bad."

"it was. i was gonna let it go," kie said. "you ever seen this many kooks in one place?"

"yeah," hannah scoffed, "last year."

kie nodded. "we're in the lion's den."

"exactly," pope muttered. "hey, have either of you heard from jj?"

"no," kie spoke before hannah get a word out. "he'll be alright. he's got the survival instincts of a cockroach."

"i would've said tazmanian devil, but, yeah, cockroach works too," hannah nodded. "anyway, i talked to jj earlier. i went to his house afterward to see if he was okay."

pope's head snapped to the girl. "what, really? is he okay?"

"a bit shaken up," hannah bit her tongue, not wanting to reveal too much about jj's personal life without his permission, "but he was fine. he's strong."

"it's all my fault." pope shook his head.

"you didn't do this, pope," kie tried to console him. "topper almost killed you, remember?"

pope didn't answer.

kie went to add something else when a series of applause erupted from the crowd of kooks.

"here come lord capital and the exploiters," kie snarked as the cameron's entered the gathering space.

hannah rolled her eyes. "more like ted bundy and lady liberty. who told her that spiky headband looked good?"

"she's definitely gonna poke somebody's eye out with that," pope agreed.

"if that means not having to watch the one that looks like a thumb undress me with his eyes all night, i hope it's me," hannah muttered pointing to rafe who was unabashedly checking her out. "i hope he chokes on an fork."

...

"why are we here, again?" jj asked john b as they pushed the HMS pogue ashore.

"i'll explain in a minute, okay?" john b said, grabbing his things from the boat. "can you believe this midsummers shit, man?"

"of course i can. happens every year, no matter how screwed up the rest of us are," jj rolled his eyes. "so, like, what's the plan, exactly?"

john b pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket. "okay, look, i need you to get this to sarah."

"ooh! can i read it?" jj asked, already unfolding the note.

"no, you can't read it."

"who's vlad?"

john b turned to see jj reading the note. "god, do you ever listen?"