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In Australia, hurricanes aren't a common occurrence like they are in America. Sure, they have the occasional storm and depending on the size of it, there isn't usually a catastrophic amount of damage. Claire lived in Sydney however, which is not tropical in the slightest, so she hadn't experienced too many in all her sixteen years of living. So when Hurricane Agatha struck the night before, it was a new experience for both the Hastings women.

They knew the damage would be bad. You could hear trees snapping and glass smashing coming from basically everywhere. There was even a smash in the bathroom. The thunder and lighting was louder than ever, and the wind would've blown anyone away if they were stupid enough to go out into the storm. Claire didn't realise just how bad it was until she woke up the next morning. When she walked into the bathroom, she saw a giant hole in the window, with a few rocks sitting in the bathtub to accompany it.

That explains the smash.

She sighed and headed to the kitchen, where her mother was sweeping water out the back door.

Great, we've flooded. Who knows how long it'll take to clean this up now.

"Agatha did some real damage, didn't she?" Claire sighed again, shaking her head.

"We'll clean up and get back to normal eventually." Jackie replied.

Claire scoffed. "What's 'normal' these days?"

Jackie sighed. "Can you not be pessimistic for one day and just go outside and start cleaning, please?"

"Sure." Claire muttered, rolling her eyes and making her way out to the front porch. She groaned when she saw the mess.

There were branches and leaves everywhere and one wicker chair had been knocked over (which she picked up), a small tree had fallen over in the yard and the door to the shed had come off, somehow ending up in a different, much larger tree. She walked over to the tree and stared up at the door. It was wedged between some branches towards the top.

"Thank you, Agatha, for seriously fucking up my day." She said irritatedly.

"Why is that door in a tree?" A familiar voice asked from behind. Claire turned around and smiled half-heartedly as she saw JJ walking towards her.

"Ask Agatha." She replied, placing her hands on her hips then looking back up at the tree.

"Damn, Aggie."

"Right, time to get this door down." She stated, walking up to the tree and started to climb.

"What are you doing?" JJ asked.

"What does it look like?"

"It looks like you're gonna hurt yourself."

"Appreciate the concern, mate, but you don't need to worry about me."

Claire pushed herself up, grunting as she swung her leg over the first branch collar, then looked up at the door.

"I'll never get used to you calling people 'mate'." JJ said.

"No different to you guys calling each other 'bro' all the time." She retorted as she continued to climb her way up carefully.

"Didn't you ever call anyone 'bro' in Australia?"

Claire shrugged. "I guess so, but mate is more common. Wait-what are you even doing here?" She asked, looking down at JJ, who was watching her cautiously and readying himself to catch her if she fell.

"Oh. John B is calling a mandatory Pogue meeting on the marsh so I came to get you."

"Right."

Claire swung her leg over the last branch collar and reached for the door, carefully manoeuvring it out of it's position, and accidentally cutting her right hand on the corner of it.

"Fuck." She hissed.

When she finally freed the door, she threw it to the ground in frustration.

"Heads up!" She yelled as it landed on the ground with a loud 'thud'. Then she slowly made her way back down the tree, and jumped off, landing firmly on her feet.

"See, I'm perfectly fine." She grinned at JJ, dusting her hands off. But she winced again at the cut on her hand and caressed it gingerly.

"Barely." He scoffed. "Let me see it."

"JJ, it's fine. It's just a cut–"

"Claire, shut up and let me look."

She sighed and did as he asked, holding out her hand so JJ could examine her wound. It wasn't uncommon for him to do this. To take care of her. He always took care of his friends, no matter what.

When Claire went on her wild drinking spree after her dad's death, JJ was always there to hold her hair while she puked into the toilet, and he was always ready with some aspirin and a glass of water when she'd wake up the next morning with a enormous hangover. Claire did the same for JJ, although it usually ended up being different scenarios. Her window was always open for him to sneak in during the middle of the night after getting into a fight with his dad. It wasn't something JJ ever shared, and Claire knew how uncomfortable he was even bringing it up but he never needed to. All she had to do was comfort him and that's exactly what they did for each other.

Both were too stubborn to admit it, and despite not knowing each other for long, their friendship had become something much deeper than what words could describe.

"It doesn't look that deep, but you should probably clean it up so it doesn't get infected." JJ said, releasing her hand.

Claire rolled her eyes. "Thank you, doctor. Whatever would I do without you?" She teased.

"Nothing. You'd be absolutely lost without me around."

"Pfft. You wish."

The two bickered back and forth while they lifted the door and carried it over to the shed. Claire had to ignore the stinging feeling on her hand as the edge of the metal door dug into her skin. When they'd successfully placed the door down, Claire scanned her yard for anymore objects that had potentially crossed paths with Agatha. When she couldn't see anything, she was surprised that the shed door was the only thing that got damaged.

"I really didn't need your help," Claire insisted as they wandered back inside her house, "but thanks."

"You're welcome, mate." He winked.

She laughed and shoved him playfully. "You're an idiot."

"I love it when you talk dirty to me, baby."

Claire rolled her eyes as they entered the house, ignoring his flirting and quickly ran to the bathroom to wash her hands and clean her cut.

"Hi, Mrs M." JJ greeted from out in the living room.

"Hello, JJ." Jackie replied.

"Mum, I'm going out with the boys and Kie for a bit." Claire announced, re-entering the room.

Jackie gave her one of her 'are you serious?' looks. "Of all days, you pick today to hang out with your friends?"

"I promise I'll finish cleaning when I get back. I cleared the branches off the porch and I even got the shed door out of the tree. Look, I even injured myself in the process!" She exclaimed, showing her mother her injured hand.

Jackie sighed heavily. "Fine. Go. Just don't be out too late." She said.

"Thank you!" Claire grinned.

"And don't get into anymore trouble!"

"Can't make any promises!" JJ added.

And with that, they hopped in Claire's truck and headed to John B's.

➸

As the three friends rode along the marsh, they couldn't help but notice how discouraged everyone looked because of the mess they had to clean up.

"Bloody hell, look at this place..." Claire breathed.

JJ whistled lowly, "Agatha, what did you do?"

"She is a crazy lady." John B said.

"We're gonna be cleaning this all summer."

"That is my nightmare."

They approached the dock and Claire chuckled as Pope looked like he'd rather be anywhere than here, hosing. Then she noticed the sign beside him, with the words 'BRING IT ON AGGIE YOU BITCH' spray painted in black.

"Hey, Pope, I think you missed a spot." She said. Pope furrowed his eyebrows at her and looked around.

"Where?" He asked.

"Everywhere."

Pope gave her a flat stare and aimed the hose in her direction, squirting her with water. She squirmed, moving to sit at the stern of the boat, out of the firing line as John B spoke.

"We have a safety meeting. Attendance mandatory." He said, mimicking a static radio.

"I can't. My pop's got me on lockdown."

"Come on, man." JJ persisted. "Your dad's a pussy. Over." He added, mimicking the radio this time.

"Oh I heard that, you little bastard." Mr Heyward said, approaching the group of teens.

"We need to borrow your son for a bit." Claire interjected.

"Yeah, and island rules. Day after a hurricane is a free day." JJ said.

"Who the hell made that up?" Heyward asked.

"Uh...Pentagon, I think. We have security clearance. I have a card."

"Yeah, okay. Ya'll think I'm stupid?"

"Do you really want us to answer that?" Claire asked, earning a glare from him.

"I'll do it tomorrow. I promise. Tomorrow." Pope said.

"No, no. Hell no. You doin' it right now."

"Get in the boat." John B whispered.

"Make a run for it, bro." JJ added and Pope started doing exactly that.

"Boy, if you get in that boat–"

He jumped onto the boat, and ordered John B to go faster, while Claire and JJ try to hold back their laughter as Heyward continued shouting at his son to get back.

"I promise I'll do it tomorrow, Dad."

"–You'll clean your dirty ass room!"

"We'll try and bring him back in one piece, promise!" Claire yelled, giving him a thumbs up as the four of them slowly cruised off to Kie's place.

"Oh, top o' the mornin' to ya." JJ greeted when they arrived.

"Morning boys. And girl." She replied.

"G'day." Claire saluted.

"Whatcha got? You got some juice boxes?" Pope asked.

"You know, just some yoghurts and carrot sticks."

"How about my kind of juice box?" JJ asked, helping her onto the boat.

"Yeah."

As John B sped up, the rest of them grabbed a beer from the cooler and clinked their bottles together. Claire took a long sip, letting the cool breeze fan her face before taking off her top and laying down to at least try and get a tan.

She'd been attempting to get a proper tan since moving here. It hadn't happened yet.

Thank you, Australia, for blessing me with pasty, un-tannable skin. She thought.

They'd been cruising for a few minutes, chatting and laughing about different things, Pope eventually taking over driving the boy from John B. As the boat gained a little more speed, the wind picked up and just as Claire was almost asleep, she felt something wet and sticky hit her skin. She sat up and saw JJ standing at the bow of the boat, (once again) attempting to drink his beer in the wind. And like always, it failed.

"Oh my god, you're getting beer in my hair!" Kie exclaimed, moving out of the way.

"Yeah, and you're interrupting my nap." Claire added, moving positions also. She moved to sit on the opposite side of the boat out of the splash zone as the others move out of the way as well.

"All right, you're done." John B said.

"All right, stop!" Pope yelled.

Suddenly the boat lurched to a stop, sending JJ flying into the water and Claire over the side. She let out a scream and squeezed her eyes shut, sucking in a deep breath as her body collided with the water. Immediately, the memories of her accident started flashing through her mind and she found it harder to breathe. She saw them go under, saw him struggling in the net and then the anchor. Then just as she thought everything was going to go black again, an arm wrapped itself firmly around her waist and pulled her up to the surface. Claire gasped as her head came up, coughing and spluttering, while attempting to steady herself in the water. She turned her head to see JJ looking back at her with concern. His arm was still holding onto her firmly.

"I got you, it's okay." He panted, using his free hand to move some of the wet strands of hair out of Claire's face.

"Thanks." She breathed heavily, then they swam slowly back to the boat.

Kiara and John B helped pull her up, Kie immediately wrapping a towel around Claire's shoulders as they sat her down.

"Claire, are you okay?" Kie asked anxiously.

Claire gave her a small nod in response then wrapped the towel tighter around her body. Her hands were shaking and her heart was pounding against her chest, but she was just glad to be out of the water.

"You okay, JJ?" John B asked.

"Yeah. I think my heels touched the back of my head." JJ replied. "Pope, what did you do?"

"Sandbar. The channel changed."

"No shit."

"Sorry, Claire." Pope apologised.

"It's okay." She replied quietly.

"Ugh, this is probably gonna mess this whole place up." John B groaned.

"Hey, I saved the beer, though." JJ announced.

Claire rolled her eyes. "Congrats."

"Guys...I think there's a boat down there." Pope said suddenly.

"Shut up. What?"

"No way."

"No, no, guys. I'm serious. There's a boat down there. For real."

The group of friends all got up and look at where Pope was pointing, while JJ swam towards it.

"Guys...is this..."

"It's a boat!"

"Holy shit, he's right. Let's go." Kie said.

Claire moved out of the way and watched as her friends stripped off and dived into the water.

"Guys, wait up!" Pope said.

"Get your ass in here, man." JJ replied, then they went under to have a look.

Claire waited patiently for them to come back, her leg bobbing up and down like it usually did when she was nervous.

When she heard them reach the surface, JJ asked, "You guys saw that?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I did."

"What did you guys find?" She asked.

"A Grady-White." JJ laughed.

"A new one of those is like 500 G's, easy." Pope said, as they all swam back to the boat.

"Wait, like the fancy boats from Figure Eight?" Claire asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

What would an expensive boat like that be doing out here on the marsh? She thought.

"That's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge. Maybe it hit the jetty or something." John B said.

"You surfed the surge?" Kie asked.

"Yeah."

JJ laughed, hi-fiving his best friend. "That's my boy. Pogue style."

"Do we know whose boat it is?" Claire asked.

"No, but we're about to find out." John B replied, opening up the compartment to the anchor.

"Dude, it's too deep." JJ said.

"Oh, for the weak and feeble, JJ."

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

"That's fine." John B shrugged, grabbing the anchor out.

"You're nuts." Claire added.

"John B..." Kie muttered.

"What?" He chuckled.

"Diver down." Pope saluted.

John B saluted back, "Diver down."

"Yeah, he is." JJ laughed, pushing John B into the water.

Claire chewed on her finger nervously as they waited for him to come back up. He'd been down there for a while, and they were all starting to get really worried. Then just as Pope asked if they should go get him, John B resurfaced, coughing.

"Oh my god. That took forever!"

"Ah, jeez."

"Any dead bodies?"

"Looting potential?"

"No. No. I found this motel key, though."

"A key?"

"Yes, a key, Claire."

"Great. We salvaged a motel key." JJ muttered sarcastically.

"Guys, we should report the wreck to the coast guard." Kie suggested as they headed back to land. "Maybe we'll get a finder's fee."

JJ groaned, "Yeah, and not work all summer. Thanks, Agatha, ya batch."

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