Wildfire ☞ 𝗝𝗝 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀

2. The Pogues

The pogues picked up Kiara on the way, a girl who Millie really wanted to get to know. They were a lot like each other, they could both fit in with the kooks and pogues, but Kiara simply preferred the pogues.

Millie didn't really have much of a preferance. She had some people incredibly close to her who were kooks, some spoiled and some not, and some people she loved were pogues.

Including her mom.

"Okay, guys, I know you like, wanna have fun cuz' it's summer and stuff but-"

"You know we don't owe you anything, right?" JJ laughed, not even bothering to glance at Millie while attempting to do an unkown trick with his beer.

Before she could answer, the HMS Pogue came to a sudden stop, causing JJ to fly off and literally flip into the water painfully hard.

"Karma." Kiara muttered.

Millie smiled at the girl, appreciating her help.

"You were saying?" John B asked, everyone completely ignoring JJ who was complaining and still in the water.

"Well, if you could just drop me off at the dock near the hospital, that would be amazing." Millie said confidently, she knew the island like the back of her hand.

Luckily, so did John B.

He would've happily complied and even started to head to the wheel, but Pope stated that he saw a boat.

Millie let out a groan, the only thing the boat would do would slow her search for her mother down, and the curiosity of the pogues did not help.

All four of the original pogues jumped into the water, presumably looking around the boat.

Millie would've joined but, she really couldn't have been bothered. Especially not when she had other, more important things on her mind.

As the boys and Kiara rose from the water, Millie asked them if they discovered anything.

"Anything?"

"It's Grady White!" John B yelled back while JJ cheered.

Millie scoffed. They'd obviously made a mistake, maybe they jsut confused a Grady White for another, cheaper boat, because there was no way there was one just sunken in the water.

"Isn't that the same boat from when you guys surfed the surge?" Pope nodded.

John B was busy getting out just about the rustiest anchor Millie had ever seen, was he really planning to dive all the way down there?

"Bro it's way too deep." JJ voiced out her thoughts.

"Only for the weak and feeble, JJ." John B let out a chuckle.

"Well I'm not resuscitating you. I'm just making that clear up front."

"John B." Kiara said, her voice laced with concern.

"What? I'll be back before you know it." He shrugged.

"Diver down, fool." Pope said.

"Diver down." John managed to say before JJ pushed him into the water.

♕♕♕

"Guys we should report the wreck to the coast guard, maybe we'll get a finder's fee." Kie stated.

The coast guards should've been the first place Millie could've gone to find her mom, but she knew it would've been absolutely filled.

When she'd first moved here, Millie lost her dog, Kurtis, and couldn't find him the day after a storm.

She went to the coast guards and literally almost got trampled by adults to concerned to even send her a glance.

"It's not gonna work, it's filled days after a storm, they won't care about a sunken boat."

"They'll care about a sunken Grady White." JJ retorted.

"You won't even get the chance to say boat before we walk out, I'll bet on it." Millie said with confidence.

"Fine, five dollars."

"Make it ten Maybank."

Millie waited outside as the pogues went into the half-wrecked building, she mentally counted until 60, right as she reached 59, they were back out.

Millie smirked in victory.

JJ avoided looking into her eyes, maybe if he ignored her she would forget about the 10 dollars he owed her.

It was quite a small amount, Millie didn't even want the money, she meant it as a joke. But if JJ Maybank was anything it was fair, he owed her money, and she would get it.

"Woah wait, you guys do you hear that?" Millie said sarcastically as the pogues bickered and tried to decide what they would do next.

"What?" Pope asked.

"That's the sound of JJ Maybank losing."

JJ rolled his eyes and continued to ignore her.

Eventually, the pogues decided they would try out the motel key.

"You guys go, I've gotta go to the police for help to find my mom." Millie smiled sadly.

"Don't. They'll just tell you she's dead. I've tried." John B said truthfully. They didn't even bother sending a search party since Big John, as loved as he was, was a pogue.

It was very likely that Sheriff Peterkin would tell Millie there wasn't much they could do, as much as the lady was nice, she had other people to take care of.

"It's worth a shot." Millie said. She didn't have any lead, only the Sheriff could get her one.

"No, it's not. Not unless you wanna end up in foster care. The only thing you'll be doing is telling them you have no parents."

Millie found it weird how John B ignored the existence of her father, maybe he'd literally forgotten since his one left.

"I could always move in with my dad bu-"

"But he's a kook. You'll become a kook." JJ said casually.

"I'm not gonna change, if that's what you're worried about, JJ." Their eyes met, Millie challenging him to say what was on both their minds, but JJ backed down.

The thing was, living with her dad meant her mom was gone, the parent who took care of her, the parent who actually cared about her, would be gone.

And that wasn't happening.

Millie was gonna go home, talk to her brother and try and do something, anything, to find her mom.

Anything, even if it meant going to extremes.

And all extremes have a cost.