chapter nine, barbie dreamhouse

LAST STOP: the salvage yard, where JJ has some brilliant mastermind plan to sneak in and out with a very large metal machine completely unnoticed. There's no possible way Daisy — and perhaps Pope too — can be the only one to see everything that could possibly go wrong in this half-assed plan, right? Wrong.

Daisy nudges Pope's foot with her own. "Cheer up, P. If it makes you feel any better, I doubt these idiots will even make it past the front gate, let alone steal the damn thing."

"We're not stealing the drone, we're borrowing it." John B. attempts to make him feel slightly better.

"Definition of stealing: taking another person's property without permission—"

"Without intending to return it!" John B. finishes Daisy's sentence with a smug look on his face. "You're not the only person with a dictionary."

Daisy snorts, "I didn't even know you could read." She shoots back at him.

"Ha, ha. I'm still right."

Pope stares out the window with an exasperated look on his face. "Humans are the only animal that can't tell fantasy from reality."

"Wait— did you come up with that?" John B. raises his eyebrow.

"No, Albert Bernstein came up with that, but it applies to this whole treasure-hunting thing." Pope grumbles in response.

"Oh."

Daisy smiles fondly at Pope. "I love your little nerdy analogies for everything." She muses.

"I love that nobody ever gets them." Pope retorts. He turns around in his seat so that he's facing the back of John B.'s. "So, which is it? Fantasy or Reality?"

"Why are you so weird Pope?" JJ focuses on rolling a blunt between his fingers, on the floor.

Kiara joins in on the conversation, "It's fantasy, but possible reality."

"Reality." John B. answers truthfully.

Daisy sits up from where she is seated directly across from
JJ. "What part of finding four hundred million dollars at the bottom of the ocean sounds 'realistic' to you?"

"Virtually reality." JJ mumbles with his blunt sticking out of his mouth.

Pope dutifully rips the joint from out of his mouth and flicks it across the van. "Keep the signal clear." He states.

The van screeches to a halt when the reach the salvage yard. Daisy and Kiara have agreed to work together at creating a distraction while the boys extract the drone. They get out the car first, while the others stay back.

"No! It's that you need to relax, man. You're always so tense!" JJ's muffled voice comes from inside the van.

"I'm not too tense." Pope argues back.

John B. leans on the outside of the door, giving them a reassuring smile. "Hey, don't worry. You guys got this."

"It's not us that I'm worried about." Kiara replies while backing up.

Daisy waves goodbye to John B, "Don't get caught." She salutes him.

The two girls retreat from the van and head to the entrance where, they were informed by JJ, a guard would be on duty. Daisy fell into stride with Kiara.

"So, what's the plan?" Daisy whispers as they start getting closer.

Kiara readjusts the strap of her bag on her shoulder, walking with a little more 'pep in her step'. "Follow my lead." She whispers back. "Hello? Excuse me." She waves the man down in his office.

A bald man in a black security guard shirt steps out of the small hut. There's a fence separating them.

"Can I help you?" He scrunches his face at them.

Kiara puts on her best — fakest — smile for him. "Hi! Uhm, we actually have a flat tire. We were wondering if maybe you could help us out?" Her voice goes up and octave and sounds cheerier than usual.

Still, the security guard looks unsure. He looks at Daisy who was standing beside Kiara, and she smiled almost seductively back at him. "Pretty please?" She was cringing at herself internally.

He visibly caved in, agreeing to help them. Once the man disappeared into the small office again, Kiara and Daisy shared a small victory high five between them.

The security guard returned with a box of tools, he opened the gate and followed the two of them to 'their car'.

"It's just this back one right here," Kiara explained to him. "I mean, it must've been a slow leak or something." She leans up against the side of the car, popping her hip out.

He inspects the tire for himself. "Probably just been sitting out in the yard too long."

"Not too difficult for you to fix though, right?" Daisy flutters her lashes a bit as she says it.

"Yeah, I— I got this."

Daisy sends him a quick wink, "Good!" She hums.

Both of them thank him as he kneels down to get to work on the tire. Kiara checks their surroundings to make sure the boys got in alright.

Daisy passes the time by making small talk with the guy. She even learns his name, Robert, but that she could call him Bobby, which he weirdly emphasized in their short conversation. Regardless of how she would have normally felt, she pretended to be overly giggly and kept spurring new questions for him in order to give them as much time as possible.

Every once in a while Daisy would glance up at Kiara to make sure they were doing good on time. If she didn't know any better, she'd say Kiara looked a little annoyed. Assuming it was because the boys were taking so long, Daisy moved onto asking Bobby to show her how to fix the tire to keep him busier.

The sound of a dog barking in the distance, distracted all of them from what they were doing. Bobby dropped his tools onto the pavement and started looking around.

"You hear that?" He asked them.

Kiara and Daisy shot each other alarmed expressions. "Hear what?" Kiara giggled nervously.

Bobby stood up and continued to look into the direction of the salvage yard. "Oh, Tebow's got somethin'." He mutters under his breath.

Daisy cleared her throat, thinking of what to do. She spotted a random sharp tool on the ground and used it to start poking around the tire. "Hey, what does this thing do?" She asked innocently.

Bobby notices her with the tool, "Oh no no no, don't use that." He quickly bends down to stop her. Daisy nods to Kiara to buy them some more time.

Kiara discreetly disappears to the other side of the car. Seconds later Daisy hears a faint hissing sound, and apparently Bobby does too because he's looking right at her. He narrows his eyes at Daisy and quickly gets up to see where the noise was coming from.

"Wait, Bobby! You didn't teach me how to use the twisty thingy." She tries to stop him.

Daisy doesn't get the chance before he catches Kiara letting some of the air out of the other tire. "What are you doing?" Kiara jumps at the sound of his voice.

"This one looked a little low too." She drops something from her hand.

Clearly, Bobby has caught onto their plan. He takes off towards the yard, leaving Daisy and Kiara with the car.

"Wait, wait!" Kiara frantically calls after him.

Daisy catches her by the arm. "It's no use, we need to get out of here. Now." She looks Kiara firmly in the eyes.

"Shit." Kiara nods.

They make a run for it to the Twinkie, once they hop in, Daisy slams the door shut behind them. They collapse down onto the floor for a second to catch their breath. Daisy laughs a little, mainly out of pure shock that their plan actually worked for a good minute.

"I can't believe he actually bought that shit at first." Daisy pants breathlessly. "Guys will actually listen to anything with a pair of tits."

Kiara smiles sharply. "You played your part well." She replies, almost sounding... bitter?

"Thanks?" Daisy says hesitantly. Kiara murmurs something under her breath before crawling into the passenger seat. "You did say to 'follow your lead'."

"Stellar performance!" Kiara congratulates mockingly. "Too bad it didn't work." She states rather bluntly.

Daisy's eyes widen a little, 'O-kay' She mouths slowly.

She rests her head back, struggling to understand where this sudden animosity was coming from. She thought that they were on a roll. They hadn't argued in days, and Kiara wasn't staring at her with murderous eyes anymore, so that was a plus.

Now, it felt like they were right back where they started. Back when Kiara would just snap at Daisy for any given thing just because she was mad. Except, then, she had a reason to be. But now, nothing happened? Right? Daisy combed through her memories of the day's events and tried to figure what went wrong. Which lead her to where it all started; earlier when she was flirting with Bobby and— Oh. Oh. That's it, that was when Kiara looked annoyed for the first time.

Daisy clicked her tongue in realization at exactly what was happening. She had just assumed earlier that Kiara was pissed at the boys for taking so long, but then she thought of how caught up Kiara became on Daisy's 'performance'. It all made sense now.

Kiara was jealous... of Daisy.

Even when they were kids, Kiara hated when anyone was better than her at anything. She was always the fierce and competitive type. Daisy being such a good distraction paired with the fact that it was Daisy of all people that was 'better' than her, it made Kiara jealous. Daisy had 'one-up'd' her.

THE BOYS MANAGED to successfully grab the drone without getting caught, much to Daisy's surprise. She honestly doesn't know they pull this stuff off most of the time.

After a long day of thievery and breaking and entering, everyone is starving at this point. They decide to stop by at Kiara's dad's restaurant, 'The Wreck' in hopes that he'll have something for them.

It was pretty much dead inside of the restaurant. Only a single couple was seated at one of the tables, but for the most part a ghost town.

Kiara stopped to talk with her father, and also convince him to let them eat all of his leftover food. Daisy was standing off to the side with the rest of the Pogues, trying not to stare too hard at the food on the people's table next to them. She hadn't eaten anything since that morning when she briefly stopped at Lorelei's for a change of clothes and grabbed a muffin.

Oddly enough, her aunt seemed fine with Daisy being gone all day; that, and the fact that Lorelei was so preoccupied with some new project that she was working on, she basically let them have free reign. Kai's probably been living his best Kook life, and Anna is, well, Anna.

Daisy watches Kiara with her dad from afar. At first, from the looks of it Mr. Carrera doesn't seem to happy about giving the teens free food. He looks over at them with a grumpy expression. They all wave back to him with innocent smiles. Shortly after, Kiara is tossing her arms around her dad for a tight hug.

Kiara let's go of her dad, turning towards them again, "Sit down." She instructs. And the Pogues waste no time grabbing a seat at the nearest table.

A server brings out all the leftover orders from throughout the day to their table. John B. absolutely demolishes a basket of fries in less than ten bites, downing a glass of water right after. And JJ is stuffing his mouth with whatever gets sat in front of him. Pope and Daisy start out with a little more decorum, although both of them quickly let their hunger get the best of their table manners.

In the midst of Daisy shoving a spoonful of grits into her mouth, Kiara takes a seat right beside her. She not-so-gracefully smiles at Kie, a bit of grits spilling down her chin.

"You got a little..." Kiara motions to Daisy's face while biting back a grin.

Daisy wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. "Thanks." She replies awkwardly, Kiara nods. "So, what'd your dad say about all the food?"

"He basically said the boys were animals and that I should find better friends." Kiara mindlessly traces patterns onto the table with her finger. "But, he likes you though. Said you were always a good influence."

"He's not wrong." Daisy tilts her head in agreement.

Kiara gives her a sideways glance, "Oh please, you were always worse when we were kids." She scoffs. "Remember when you crashed your bike into my neighbor's car?"

"And?"

"And then you cried hysterically to your aunt that they hit you while backing out of the driveway so you wouldn't get in trouble and your aunt threatened to press charges."

Daisy lifts her chin up indignantly, "Doesn't sound like me at all." She shrugs her shoulders, even though she definitely remembers doing that.

Kiara bubbles with laughter. "That poor couple was so mortified of your aunt they apologized and bought you a new bike!"

"It wasn't my fault their car was in the way!" Daisy giggled along with Kiara. "And anyways, I'm a changed woman now. A certified rule follower."

"Right. That's exactly what we were doing today, 'following rules'."

Daisy holds her finger up, "According to John B.'s definition, we were borrowing which is not breaking the rules."

"He's an idiot." Kiara responds. They watch him as he takes turns tossing food into JJ's mouth at the table.

Daisy grimaces, "Won't argue on that." She admits.

Once their laughter died down, Daisy and Kiara sat in a comfortable silence together with the reminisce of a smile on their faces.

"A hundred million dollars." Daisy mumbles to herself.

Kiara nods slowly. "Yup."

"We could be a millionaires by tomorrow." Daisy looks Kiara in the eyes, her face lighting up. "Kie, we could buy a real Barbie Dreamhouse!"

"That's the first thing you think of?"

Daisy nods eagerly, "Pink elevators and all."

"You're so stupid." Kiara grins.

"No, you just have no taste."

DAISY OBSERVED from the docks while Pope worked his geeky magic to figure out how to operate the drone. It was a lot bigger than she expected and more like a huge,  complicated computer than a cool thing with joysticks that moved like she envisioned.

John B. and Kiara were fooling around in the water with the actual drone part. It was bit to early, so Daisy wasn't really in the mood to join them. But the every once in a while, when the cool, teal-blue water would splash on her skin, she'd feel tempted to get in.

As usual, JJ was being his usual self and pestering Pope. Daisy was huddled close to them, also watching what was happening on the screen.

"God bless geeks, Pope. Truly, man." JJ utters in amazement. "What would we do without you to control the drones?"

"Technically it's not a drone. It's an ROV—" Pope starts to reply.

JJ quickly shushes him. "Shut up, shut up. It's too early for that right now." He walks away and over to the railing.

Kiara and John B. resurface from beneath the water. "Hey, look once we get footage of the wreck, we'll bring it to a lawyer in town and file a formal claim." John B. lightly treads the water.

"Ooh!" Daisy jumps up. "I'll bet my aunt knows a good lawyer. She walked away from her divorce without paying a dime." She suggests.

"You mean your Kook aunt?" JJ scoffs. "This is strictly Pogue business."

Daisy raises her eyebrow. "Who do you suggest JJ? And your cousin who 'knows a guy' doesn't count."

"One, my cousin does know a guy." JJ holds up his pointer finger. "Two, it's such bullshit why we have to do that."

Pope joins them, leaning on the railing with JJ. "Well, there is maritime salvage law." He says. "You can't just go to the ocean floor and scoop a bunch of stuff up."

"I know, I know." JJ shakes his head. "It's just... lawyers aren't cheap bro."

"Well as soon as they see the footage, they'll work for a comp." John B. speaks again.

Daisy scratches her head. "That just sounds like wishful thinking."

"Trust me. My dad's said it like a million times."

They all passes glances at each other before deciding that was good enough for them.

"Yeah, that's fair." Kiara agrees.

"This tether is, like, really long." Pope points out to them. "In the wrong weather, this thing could get pushed around."

John B. looks up towards the sky. "Then we'll go at dead calm." He states

The sound of distant thunder rumbles above them. Daisy looks unsure about going to search for the ship now, especially when the weather is supposed to get worse.

Kiara pulls herself up the ladder and climbs out of the water. "At slack tide?" She asks.

"So now, we just gotta wait around for the right weather." Pope tells them. "And today is not that day."

Daisy tips her head in agreement. "Good, cause if I get swept away at sea I am haunting all of you and whoever else finds the merchant."

AUTHOR'S NOTE——

left this chapter on a somewhat good note even tho we know what happens next (pope 💔) but i was kind and gave u a cute little moment between kie and daisy!

im gonna start doing other character povs too!! bc kai is just living his best kook life rn and lorelei is shady asf, anna too !!

also comment yalls opinions on s3 because i personally thought it was a MESSS. so let's talk abt it:

p.s. don't forget to vote for this chapter