The condensation wets my hand as I wipe it from my bathroom mirror. Even though I have a bandage the size of a beach towel on my head, I can still see how angry it is underneath that.

My mum is really concerned with the cut on my face, reciting how she hopes it doesn't leave a scar and that it heals nicely in time for midsummer. I wish I could say I'm surprised by her superficial concerns but I have become more than used to them. She has only gotten worse since moving here and appearances have become more closely associated with class.

I quickly get dressed into an oversized button-up and distressed denim shorts, slipping on my black vans before jogging downstairs. Despite never speaking to him before, I need to see John B and make sure he is okay.

He got a rather gnarly ass-whooping and I know that couldn't have been good for him both physically and mentally.

"Where are you off to?" I hear my step-father, Linus, call from beside me. I sigh, turning on my heels and facing him with a fake smile. "To see Rafe I hope?"

I internally roll my eyes, hating how hard they both try to push me and Rafe together. Something I hate even more is how much Rafe encourages it. I smile sweetly, my cheeks hurting from the sheer falseness of it all. "Who else would I be seeing from my vast friend group?"

"Knowing you, god knows what," He whispered to himself, my heart sinking at the suggestion of his words. I don't let my smile drop, knowing from practice how to put on a tough and pleasant exterior. I laugh it off, turning to the door

"Bye, Lanus," I whisper to myself, loud enough for him to hear but soft enough for him to not pay any attention to it. He never usually pays attention to what I say unless it's in public anyway.

As I near the exit, I spy the keys to one of Linus's fancy cars in the key bowl beside the door. I check over both shoulders before snatching them and stepping out the overly big door of our mansion.

The events of Hurricane Agatha and what she caused to the less fortunate side of the island, make living in this silly house wipe shame across my face. but, I try to ignore it and straighten myself up the way I'm used to.

Without thinking, I climb into his expensive beige Mini Cooper and grab the wheel, relaxing into the plush leather and fresh aroma.

I've always loved driving ever since I got my license. Whenever the house would feel too suffocating on the mainland, I'd climb into a car and take off into the night.

On this island, there's nowhere to drive to. Figure Eight is only so large.

The Island is confusing because of its division into two distinct parts; The Cut and Figure Eight. The worst part is that I don't spend enough time on the cut to know my way around or even how to get to John B's house.

Thankfully, my dad was a big explorer, he loved to play pirates with me when I'd visit and pretend to look for gold. When I lived at home and couldn't visit him, he'd send hand-drawn pirate maps of Kildare, showing every grove and river of the island. He knew the cut better than anyone, and I loved to study the maps from their position on my bedroom wall.

Eventually, my mum stopped letting me visit either from lack of care or want, and I stopped receiving birthday cards and anything else when I turned fourteen. John B and I were only eleven months apart in age, we refer to ourselves as Irish twins, so it hurt worse when they would forget about me.

When I get to the cut, I can't help but stare at all the damage Hurricane Agatha caused. Sure, we got hit too but cleaners on figure eight work fast enough that we barely even noticed. Trees are in front yards, barely inches away from houses no one can afford to fix.

All of a sudden, I feel stupid for driving around in this flashy car.

Soon enough, I get to what I remember as John B's home, enclosed by trees and other things. I park the car out of sight from the house, making sure to lock the doors and pocket the keys as I wander through what I hope is the trail leading to his home.

The closer I get, the more I can make out the sound of someone talking. Its a little hard to understand, but I can hear the words "marsh" "rich kids" and "foster care"

Foster care? Why would someone be talking to John B about foster care? Mum said she sorted that out.

Without thinking, I step out from my hidden spot behind the house, spotting the two people John B was with at the boneyard, sitting on couches outside of John B's house.

The girl, who I recognise as Kiara, hits the boy next to her making his head turn rapidly to spy me standing out in the open staring at them like a freak. I awkwardly lift my hand up, sending them a mock salute/wave. I hate the feeling of their eyes on me, especially after last night. "I'm uh, looking for John B?"

The boy can barely get out any words as he points off to the left. My eyes follow his finger until I see my brother and JJ standing to the side, looking at the ocean with JJ's arm around John B's shoulder as they speak. They both slowly turn around at the sudden change in atmosphere, probably sensing it.

Almost as if my presence halts whatever serious conversation was unfolding before I revealed myself, JJ steps away from my brother, both of them walking towards me. JJ smiles at me, turning to John B only to wink at him and nudge him with his shoulder before turning back to me, "Fancy seeing you here, Pheebs,"

"I'm just here to talk to John B," I explain, turning to look at John B who looks awkward. His face resembles that of someone who wants the ground to swallow them whole. I furrow my eyebrows, wondering what's so wrong; me being here or talking to JJ. I know deep down he probably just didn't want me here in the first place, but I brush it off.

JJ looks between us before settling on John B with an exaggerated and annoyed sigh, "Man, do I have to physically call dibs on everything?"

I furrow my brows, looking between them for a while to try and figure out what the blond boy is talking about before I see John B's look of disgust that says it all. I almost gag at the romantic insinuation, opening my mouth to clear things up. "Ew, god no. It's not like that, I'm his-"

"Tutor! She's my tutor," John B cuts me off, looking away from me since I'm assuming my face drops in the same way my stomach does. He's ashamed of me, this much confirms it. I can't understand why though. What have I done that's so wrong that he can't stand the thought of being my brother? We barely speak enough as it is.

JJ looks between us, clearly sensing the tension in the air. He obviously doesn't know why, but it's there and it's like we are all trying to tread through thick honey suffocating us.

A smile spreads on his face as he looks at John B. My brother shakes his head, but this doesn't detour JJ at all. He steps to my side, throwing his arm over my shoulder and pulling me to his side quickly enough that I don't have time to respond. "Y'know, we were just about to head down to the marsh if you wanted to join?"

I try to ignore the protests that follow JJ's suggestion, looking at John B's painful stare as a sick smile spreads across my face. If John B wants to hate me for no reason, fine go ahead, there's nothing I can do to change his mind. But, I sure as hell won't make it easy on him.

I look up at JJ, squinting to keep the sun from my eyes as I cross my arms over my chest and lean closer to him in another attempt to annoy John B further. "I would love to,"

Soon enough, the sun is setting the sky into a warm shade of orange, tinting everyone's exposed skin as we sit on a boat in the middle of the marsh. Most of the pogues ignore me, especially John B. JJ, unsurprisingly, is more than excited to strike up a conversation with me.

Kiara sorts through the scuba tanks John B got from god knows where, complaining about how they are all empty. I still have no idea what we're doing here and why we need scuba tanks, but it is awfully relaxing to sit on this boat. Even though everyone around me is glancing at me without a word leaving their tongues.

I slowly lift my head back up from where it's tilted back towards the sky, catching the unnamed boy looking away from me awkwardly and scratching the back of his neck in an attempt to play it off.

Laughing, I reach my hand out to his arm and gain his attention. He looks at me, his eyes drifting down to my outstretched hand below him before looking back up at me, "I'm Phoebe,"

"Pope," He smiles, grabbing my palm and lifting my hand up and down before dropping it.

"Oh shit, you're Heyward's son? I love that guy," I comment to myself, leaning back against the side of the small boat once he finishes introducing himself to me. "He always gets his hands on the best beers"

"I would agree with you if he ever let me have them," He laughs, warming up to me quickly. His body language remained enclosed and protected with how he kept his arms and legs close to his body.

"Does anyone know how to dive?" Kiara asks loudly, holding up the scuba tank that has juice left in it, the tank half empty.

Everyone remains quiet, looking at each other until JJ speaks up, "It's kind of a kook sport,"

At this, John B looks at me with a judging and almost pleading glance to which I roll my eyes and look away from him.

"I read about it," Pope informs.

"Oh great, Pope read about it so..someone's gonna die," Kiara morbidly announces, her tone laced with sarcasm as she squints against the orange sky.

"Look, you put the thing in your mouth and breathe. How hard could it be?" JJ suggests with optimism, looking around the boat for any objections.

"If you come up too fast nitrogen can get in your blood which is... not good. You get the bends," I wince to myself, lifting my hand up to shade my eyes from the sun enough to see Pope nodding along with me, looking at me with a hint of shock.

"Bends like," JJ starts, awkwardly arching his back and grabbing the pole in front of him as he leans and flashes his neck to the grouplike a peacock. "Bend over,"

"The bends kill you," Pope finishes for me, watching as JJ instantly straightens up and drops his head in shame.

"Where'd you learn that, Pheebs? Kook academy?" John B mutters to himself quietly, overpronouncing my nickname as he does. I turn to him as my smile drops, watching as he looks down at the floor of the boat. I feel anger rising in me at his shitty attitude, my eyes glancing at the scuba tanks once again.

"That depends, Johnny. You steal those tanks from the Camerons?" I snap back, growing quickly tired of his unwarranted hatred. All I've done is reach out to him over and over again only for my hand to meet a brick wall. My knuckles can only bleed so many times before they turn into breaks and bruises.

"If I say yes, you gonna go tell your boyfriend?" He mocks with a smile.

I envision myself standing up from my position on the boat, walking over to where John B sits next to Kiara on the nose of the boat and aggressively pushing him into the water. I try to calm myself down. But the longer I look at the cocky expression on his face, the harder it becomes until soon I feel my legs lifting off the ground and moving towards John B until JJ's figure appeared in the middle, blocking my view of my brother.

"Girls, girls. Let's not get too wild okay?" He laughs to himself, finding the humour in the situation even though no one else seems to.

"John B can dive," I announce, looking away from JJ and over his shoulder to my brother. His glare only made my smile grow bigger.

"Since when can you dive?" Kiara asked, looking at him with confusion and annoyance. He doesn't look at her, instead turning to look away from all of us.

"It's fine, I'll do it," He agrees, making my smile grow bigger.

Pope begins making calculations, showing me the depths of his intelligence as he does so. I know this may sound harsh, but I'm surprised someone as smart as him comes from Pogue High School, especially considering all the rumours I hear about how bad their curriculum is. But, to be fair, the only people I'm around that say those things are Kooks who tend to shit on anything that's cheap or free.

Kiara ties her shirt ten feet down where John B has to make his safety stop while he begins covering himself in the scuba gear. The longer I look at him in the gear that could very well cause him harm as an inexperienced diver, the more guilty I feel.

I quietly move over to him, he knows I'm here despite his efforts to ignore me. "Look, I can take over if you need me to-"

"No." He cuts me off, the stern tone getting my back up again until he turns to me, the softness of his eyes cutting through the stone of his expression. "You're not going down there. I know you're not experienced either,"

I stand there silently for a moment, chewing on the inside of my bottom lip as I watch him finish securing his gear. The thing John B said about me running to tell 'my boyfriend' resurfaces in my mind, the words gnawing at an inside part of me. "For what it's worth, I still believe in honour among Routledge's,"

He tries to hide his smile at the reference to our childish spin on 'honour among thieves', the one we created as children when playing treasure games our Dad invented. He knows I won't tell Rafe, especially not after last night. I've had to keep my phone off all day because he's blowing up my phone like a crazy person, asking to speak to me and begging for my forgiveness.

I turn to face away from John B, walking over to JJ and Pope as Kiara silently slides past me. I haven't spoken to Kiara much, or at all really, but the way she helped me last night without hesitation leaves a comfort in my chest around her.

"So, uh. You and John B, what's going on there?" JJ questions, trying to play it off cool as he leans against the boat and squints off into the setting sky. Pope silently scoffs at the bluntness, shaking his head in shame as I laugh.

"Why don't you ask him?" I suggest, following their eyes as we all turn to see Kiara kissing John B on the cheek, close to his lips. I physically cringe, feeling a shiver run down my spine at the sight of my brother's grin.

"He's a bit busy at the moment," JJ announced, turning back to me with an uncomfortable grin. I widen my eyes in agreement, listening to the sound of John B jumping into the water.

It isn't long before Pope alerts everyone to an approaching boat. I stand up, turning around to try and get a better look at who might be on the boat. Then, almost as if to help my struggling eyes, they set off two small siren noises. "Yep, that's the cops,"

"You gotta be kidding me," Pope cries out at the timing of it.

"Just act normal," Kiara tells everyone, tossing her hair off her shoulders as she contains her nerves.

It's easy for me to slip into a relaxed attitude considering the lines I had taken earlier today. Except they're wearing off and I can feel my worries for JB surfacing just the smallest bit.

"Hey, Shoupe!" I exclaim to the officer as he pulls his police boat up next to ours. I gently take the rope from his hands, handing it off to JJ for him to secure onto our boat.

"What are you doing, Phoebe? Y'know the marsh is closed," Shoupe questions, looking between all of us despite his expression showing he already knows the answer to that.

"Really? I had no idea, did you guys?" I ask, turning my head around to the three pogues behind me, all of them catching on and finally speaking up only to voice their agreement. Once satisfied, I turn back to Shoupe with a fake, kook-covered smile, "There a reason for the marsh to be closed?"

"We're conducting a search out here. Boat went down. Seen anything?" Shoupe responds, the passive-aggressive tone of voice doing little to hide his suspicions.

Everyone begins to speak their own little 'no', denying seeing any activity. Even I can tell that they're lying. Is that why we're really here? Did they find Scotters boat?

I shake my head in agreement, pushing my hands off the edge of the boat and turning around, ready to walk over to the other side of the boat until Shoupe stops me. "Hey, Phoebe?"

"Mhmm?" I turn around, my finger up to the skin of the lip. The nerves in my belly are now roaring the longer I sit with the information of why we are really in the marsh. More importantly, what this means for the missing owner of the boat.

"Where's your brother at? Where these kids are, he isn't usually far. He here?" He interrogates, trying to act as if it's an innocent question. Still, I can't ignore the use of the word 'brother' and the way I hear the three others start whispering to each other.

I smile mockingly, dropping my hand and turning fully towards him. No one can beat me at the innocent act game, definitely not some small-town cop. "Now, Shoupe, aren't you some sort of detective? Where would he be hiding?"

He doesn't take kindly to my suggestion. The sound of JJ's snickering only made his face solidify more. Taking my claims a step further, I gesture my arms out to John B's boat and step aside. "Come see for yourself,"

Shoupe eagerly takes my suggestion, dropping onto the 'HMS Pogue' and looking around. He inspects every inch of the sea vehicle. He turns his back to us to step onto the nose of the boat and look down into the water, allowing me to drop my shoulders and nervously bite at the skin of my lip knowing John B doesn't have much air left in his tank.

After what feels like hours, Shoupe finally turns around and steps off the nose of the boat, going on about what a 'beautiful day' it is as he does which Pope agrees with.

It feels like a further few more hours before he's in his police boat and steering away, the soft hum of the motor getting quieter with distance. Once he's far enough away, we all scramble to the edge of the boat, looking for any sign of my brother in the water somewhere.

Dramatically, he emerges from the water, cheers erupting from the pogues as my heart relaxes in my chest.

"You find anything?" JJ asks eagerly, rubbing his palms together as he walks over to the ladder that John B is approaching.

John B smiles back, out of breath as he tosses things onto the boat, "Did I find anything?" He mocks.

"Yeah, there we go! That's my boy!" JJ praises, grabbing the things from the deck of the boat and walking away.

"Cops were up here but we uh...took care of it," Pope shrugs it off, trying to play it cool even though I did all the work while they were all shitting themselves.

"More specifically, your sister we didn't know about took care of it," Kiara notifies. I watch as all their heads turn to me, John B pausing his climb up the ladder to look at me. I hold my hand to my lip, letting go of the sore spot to wave, ignoring the sight of JJ dramatically pointing at me from the right as if I need more of a big neon sign.

"Yeah..." JJ trailed off, looking between John B and I. He stops on me again, giving me a long once over before continuing "I don't see the relation,"

"Thanks for that needed commentary, JJ," Pope sends JJ a thumbs up, trying to clear the awkward tension that has now settled. JJ just winks and points a finger gun in Pope's direction in response.

"Guys. Bogey, two o'clock," Kiara announces. All of us stop what we are doing and turn towards the far end of the marsh, a white boat in the distance slowly approaching.

"Do you recognise that boat?" Pope asks no one in particular.

"I've never seen it," Kiara confesses. My stomach clenches at the dramatic thoughts entering my mind. I'm sure it's nothing. "What are they doing back here? The marsh is closed?

"Let's not stick around to find out, shall we?" I ask, looking between everyone's slightly worried faces. No one objects.

My eyes land on JB's, watching as he nods towards me before springing into action, "JJ, get the bowline?"

JJ agrees, instantly going to free the boat from the bowline. I stand there, watching with a sore gut as the boat gets closer and closer to ours.

"Should we wait on 'em?" Pope suggested, his voice sounding slightly frantic considering the dumbass suggestion he just gave.

"Why the hell would we wait for them?" I respond, furrowing my eyebrows.

"Go get the stern, go!" John B instructs Pope, trying to ease the tension but failing as he stands closer to the end of the boat, taking on the protector role he always used to have as a kid.

"JJ, hurry up," Kiara snaps, her voice conveying more fear than anger. I feel my stomach begin to twist around and around until it's thinning out and I feel dizzy.

Everyone starts to get more and more frantic the longer it takes. Their voices all blend together in my head, all I can focus on is the suspicious boat heading straight towards us. I don't even realise JJ and Pope have primed the boat until it's moving.

"Guys, they're following us!" Kiara yells, the only sentence getting through my jumbled thoughts.

I keep my eyes on the boat, everyone else turning around to face the front of us. Suddenly, I see one of the men pull out a weapon, a long rifle entering my sights causing my throat to almost swell shut. All I can do is erratically hit JJ's arm until he turns around just in time to see the stranger leaning his rifle against the boat and aiming right for us.

"Shit!" He yells, instinctively grabbing me as the closest person to him and dropping to the floor. His voice alerts everyone else in time for them to drop just as the first shot bounced off one of the poles.

I can barely feel my body hit the deck of the boat. My limbs curl themselves up into each other, my knees to my chest and my back to the edge of the boat. JJ sits in front of me darting his eyes back and forth like a lunatic. The sound of the second gunshot brings me back into reality.

I slip out from between JJ and the boat, narrowly avoiding his hand that reaches out to grab me and pull me down. Crawling around, I make my way to where John B is steering the boat before slapping him and yelling at him to get down.

"I'm gonna get us out of here, Pheebs!" He tries to assure me, only making me feel worse as he barely misses a bullet that zips past his head.

"Not if you get riddled with bullets on the way!" I yell back. I know there is no use getting through to him right now. My frustrations lead to me hitting the bottom of the boat with my hand before lifting my head and spotting a tangled net near where Pope is.

Turning to the left, I make eye contact with Kiara, using my eyes to signal her towards the net she's closer to. She almost instantly understands what I'm suggesting, both of us crawling over to it and pulling it out to untangle it. To do so, we have to stand a little bit taller than a crouch, making us an easier target.

"Get down!" John B yells at us through the wind.

We both ignore him, Kiara quickly finishing her side of the net before running over to the back of the boat and heaving it into the water. The fishing net gets caught in the underside of the enemy boat, tangling in the rotor and bringing it to a standstill in the water. We make it around a bend, out of sight of the strange men trying to kill us for no apparent reason.

I smile as I watch them disappear, chest heaving as I throw my hands into the air and scream in celebration. Kiara very quickly joins me, wrapping her arms around me and jumping up and down.