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𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻𝗲: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝘆-𝘄𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲

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"And that's Cassandra Blake. She moved here about two years ago and is a rich kid, like Kie, which is how we all got to know her. I wouldn't really call her a Pogue, or well, JJ won't let me call her a Pogue even though she's been hanging with us since the end of Kie's Kook year. Let's just say the two of them don't really get along. I think it's because they're both so similar, but don't tell them I said that. She's not really like the other Kooks since she's always somehow caught up in a fight, Pogue-style. Probably because she always has to get a snarky comment or the last word in. I'm not actually sure if she likes the rest of us or not but hey, it's always fun to see a cat fight, right? And honestly, I think she's pretty cool. Well, for a Kook at least."

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

The morning after Hurricane Agatha, Cassandra Blake rose from her bed to find that she still had power thanks to living on Figure Eight, however the Wi-Fi had been out. She was supposed to meet up with Kiara Carrera to go on a walk around town and gossip, which was something they usually did when they had the time. And now since it was summer, they had all the time in the world.

Despite only getting close to one another the summer before and during their sophomore year, the two girls just seemed to be two peas in a pod. Well...one pea had a couple extra peas which were the Pogues.

Cassie began to get ready for the day, pulling on a blue bikini with a white, sweater-like coverup over it that went down to her thighs. Living in the Outer Banks, you never knew if you would end up in the ocean by the end of the day so you always had to be appeared.

She then carefully braided her hair in a fishtail braid, which had been a common practice for her. When her father died, she needed something, anything, to distract her from the pain of it so she turned to YouTube which taught her all sorts of braiding techniques. And now, it was just her signature hairstyle.

Once she was done with her appearance, she grabbed her small tote bag, filling it up with sunglasses, lip balm, mints, extra hair ties, and a water bottle.

Once she was done all together, she went downstairs to hear her mother, Savannah Blake, chatting on the phone. "Yes, Ward, we're fine. We still have power and a few trees on the lawn. Nothing big," she heard the woman assure the man, which Cassie assumed was Ward Cameron over the phone.

Her father, Kevin Blake, had worked for his real estate company, Cameron Development, which was why they moved down to the Outer Banks in the first place. He had also died on one of Ward's private planes when it crashed during a work trip, prompting Ward to feel guilty ever since. He constantly always checked in on the Blakes and even secretly chipped in money whenever he could, knowing that Kevin had been the breadwinner of the family.

As Cassie walked past the kitchen, where her mother had been flipping through the newspaper while speaking with Ward, she waved to her mom.

"Oh, one second, Ward," Savannah quickly uttered to the man before she turned her full attention to her daughter. "Where are you going, honey?"

"I'm hanging with Kiara. We're just gonna be going on one of our walks," Cassie told her mother.

"Okay, well, be careful. There was just a hurricane, if you didn't know," her mother joked and Cassie smiled a bit. "And stay out of trouble, please. I don't feel like dealing with angry parents telling me you tried to fight their daughter."

"Well maybe if some of these people would just keep their mouths shut, I wouldn't have to fight them," Cassie argued and Savannah just sighed, shaking her head. "Bye!"

Savannah waved to her daughter before she continued speaking with Ward, "Oh, that was Cassie...Yes, I know you want her to get closer with Rafe but it's not up to me to get her to do that..."

Cassie paused before she left, hearing the last part of their conversation. All these years of trying to hook up with Rafe Cameron to get back at Sarah Cameron had ended in failure but when she turned 16...Rafe had suddenly started to show interest. But after overhearing her mother's conversation with Ward, she wondered if that had to do with it. She would have to look into it more later.

She then opened the door and left, heading to Kiara's house which was right down the block from her conveniently.

"Hey, Kiki," Cassie greeted the Carrera girl once she saw the girl standing on her front porch, using the designated nickname that she only called her. The two had been friends since the end of freshman year now, ever since Sarah Cameron dropped her just like she had done with Cassie the summer prior.

"Hey, Cece," Kiara replied back using her designated nickname back, shimmying her shoulders. "Let's head to the backyard."

Cassie arched a brow. "Backyard? Why? I thought we were gonna just be walking around today," she pointed out before she noticed the red cooler in the cooler in the girl's hands. "Oh, don't tell me..." She trailed off, knowing exactly what that cooler meant: the Pogues.

Cassie wasn't against them just because they were Pogues. She honestly didn't really care about the whole labels thing, except for the fact that she always wanted to be viewed as a popular Kook.

No, no...the one thing she had been against was JJ Maybank. She had been fine with John B Routledge and Pope Heyward, like them even. But JJ...JJ was a different story.

When they had first met, she heard the rumors about him being a womanizer, fuckboy but didn't really want to judge a book by its cover. However, he seemed to do the total opposite when he found out she was a Kook. It was like he only viewed her as that and not even human, which enraged her to her core. And she also knew that he was only friends with Kiara to get in her pants, it was obvious, and that angered her even more. She didn't want her best friend being treated like a piece of meat by some bonehead guy.

"Look, they asked to hang out and I felt bad because the power went out for them and they gotta deal with Aggie themselves," Kiara explained as she walked off her porch, heading toward her backyard through the gate.

Cassie sighed, following behind her. "Okay, yeah, that makes sense. But you could've warned me at least."

"Warned you? First of all, no internet remember? And second of all, warned you?" Kiara questioned, shooting a look at the blonde girl over her shoulder.

"Yeah. I gotta prepare for what I'm gonna say to douchebag Maybank, duh," Cassie responded like it was obvious.

Kiara rolled her eyes at the girl. "You know, if you actually got to know him instead of insulting him every chance you get, you'd realize that you guys are more alike than you think."

"Bleh! Never say that again, Kie," Cassie shook her head, scrunching up her face in disgust.

"I'm just saying, I don't know why you guys fight all the time. I mean, you're fine with John B and Pope," Kiara shrugged, making her way over to the dock behind her house.

"That's because John B and Pope are actually pretty normal. JJ is an asshole fuckboy who's been conspiring against me ever since he found out I'm a Kook. I'm the only one who's allowed to conspire here, okay?" Cassie complained, causing Kiara to laugh. "And I also just don't understand because you're technically also a Kook so why doesn't he do the same thing to you?"

Kiara shrugged again. "Maybe he hates you for another reason."

"And what reason could that possibly be?"

Kiara thought for a moment. "He doesn't want another blonde in the group?" She came up with, causing the two girls to look at each other for a moment before they bursted out laughing. Kiara then looked over her shoulder, seeing the Pogues nearing the dock in the HMS Pogue. "Oh, they're here. C'mon."

"Great," Cassie muttered sarcastically, following Kiara down the dock.

"Play nice," Kiara whispered to her.

"No promises," Cassie whispered back.

"Oh, top o' the mornin' to ya," John B greeted in a fake Irish accent.

"Good morning, boys," Kiara greeted.

"Morn — Hey, wait, what's she's doing here?" JJ questioned, immediately noticing the blonde behind Kiara.

"Oh, Kie didn't tell you I was coming? That's funny, she didn't tell me I'd be joining," Cassie replied, sending Kiara a pointed look as the girl rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Kie, seriously?" JJ said to the girl, already annoyed just by being in Cassie's presence.

Kiara groaned. "Can't y'all just get along for once? Jesus Christ."

"No," both blondes said at the same time before they sent each other a glare.

John B and Pope shared a wary glance with one another, never knowing what to do whenever the two argued. "I'm just gonna ignore that for now, uh...Watcha got? You got some juice boxes?" John B asked Kiara, changing the subject. However, the two blondes continued staring each other down like they had some unofficial staring contest.

"You know, just some yogurts, some carrot sticks," Kiara played innocent.

JJ finally glanced away from the girl, asking, "How about my kind of juice box?" He then helped Kiara onto the boat as she confirmed the kind of juice boxes he wanted before he looked back at Cassie, raising his brows.

"Oh, you're not gonna help me?" Cassie said, tilting her head at him mockingly. She then tossed him the bag she was carrying without warning, making him catch it with a grunt before he shook his head at her. "Thanks," she grinned before she stepped onto the boat, taking the bag out of his arms.

"Brace for impact," John B muttered as the two blondes narrowed their eyes at each other once more before they retreated to opposite ends of the boat.

Kiara cracked open the cooler, revealing the beer bottles. "Salud," she said, clanking her bottle with JJ's. "Hey, Cece, want one?" Kiara offered, holding up a bottle.

Cassie looked over her shoulder at the girl before she smiled. "Can't turn that down," she replied as she walked back over to where the others were sitting, taking the bottle and taking a sip.

"Careful, Cassandra, don't want you throwing up all over us," JJ teased with a smirk, making Pope release a snort.

Cassie sneered. He had been referring to the one time she had been invited to John B's, per Kiara's request, to drink with them and she ended up having a little too much. She was still mourning her father, so it had been a rough time for her, just wanting to use alcohol as the only measure to escape. She seemed to do that a lot.

"That actually doesn't sound too bad. You covered in vomit? Would be pretty funny, don't you think?" She shot back and JJ rolled his eyes, taking a sip of his beer.

"She kinda got you with that one, bro," Pope admitted and Cassie raised her bottle toward him as a way of saying thanks.

"Oh, shut up, Pope, whose side are you on?" JJ nudged him, sending his friend a look.

"Uhhhh...I'm gonna go drive the boat now," Pope responded awkwardly as he got up and shuffled away, switching with John B. JJ rolled his eyes at the boy before he handed John B a beer.

"So, Cassie, how's your mom?" John B asked her with a smirk, causing all the boys to chuckle. It had been a common occurrence for the boys to make MILF or Your Mom jokes around Cassie seeing as though her mom had been objectively attractive.

"Seriously, John B?" Kiara said, her eyes widening at him. "You make the same joke every time."

"Because it never gets old!" John B argued.

"Yeah, honestly, he's right, it doesn't get old," Cassie had to agree with him seeing as though Your Mom jokes never seemed to die out. "But she's good, thanks for asking. I'll put a good word in for you next time I see her."

"Aye, thanks," John B said, going along with the joke and giving the girl a fist bump.

JJ ran his tongue across his top teeth, not liking the fact that the others seemed so cool with a wannabe Pogue, who didn't even want to be a Pogue, hanging with them. In his mind, at least Kiara had actually wanted to be a Pogue whereas Cassie just constantly tagged along. "All right, who wants to see a party trick?" He interrupted, going up to the end of the boat. "Hey, Pope, can you go a little faster, please?"

"Oh god, here we go, I'm moving," John B quickly said as he backed away to the other end of the boat. "It doesn't work. We've tried this, like, 6000 times."

"I got this! It's gonna work!" JJ exclaimed as he held the beer bottle up to his mouth, trying to let the speed of the boat boost the liquid into it. However, it didn't seem to be working very well.

"Oh, my God, you're getting beer in my hair!" Kiara complained as the liquid fell onto her and Cassie.

"All right, all right. Stop! Stop!" The boys tried to stop him before it could get anywhere else.

He didn't seem to listen and in fact, he had tilted in a way so it could get more onto Cassie. "Oh, c'mon, stop you asshole!" Cassie yelled at him. JJ looked back at her and laughed before all of a sudden, the boat hit into something causing the boy to do a flip and fall into the water.

Cassie lurched forward onto Kiara, making them both yelp, before she gently pushed off from the girl. "Actually...can he do that more often?" Cassie voiced in a groan since it felt like her whole body had shifted. Kiara sent her a look to which Cassie just shrugged.

"You okay, JJ?" Pope called out as JJ floated back to the surface.

"I think my heels touched the back of my head," JJ groaned.

"Kie, you okay?" John B asked the girl.

"I'm all right," Kiara answered.

"Wow, thanks for me asking me, too. I'm totally fine!" Cassie said sarcastically, rolling her eyes at the boys.

"Sorry," Pope and John B apologized quickly, knowing how she got whenever she got mad.

"Pope, what did you do?" JJ questioned.

"Sandbar. The channel changed," Pope explained.

"No shit," JJ replied as he swam back to the boat.

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

"Hey, I saved the beer, though," JJ revealed as Pope walked to the edge of the boat, looking down into the water.

"Congrats, JJ."

"Guys...I think there's a boat down there," Pope spoke, squinting his eyes and tilting his head.

"Shut up, what?"

"Huh?"

"No way."

"No, no, guys. I'm serious. There's, like, a boat down there. For real." Pope pointed to where he saw the boat below the water, making them all get up and look to where he had been pointing. "There's a boat!"

"Holy shit, he's right. Let's go," Kiara urged before they all started to take their clothes off, revealing their swimsuits underneath.

Cassie gasped in shock as she took her coverup off, fully revealing the blue bikini she had underneath. See, you never know. "You think there's a dead body down there?" Pope queried no one in particular as they all began to jump in. "Guys, wait up!"

"Get your ass in here, Pope!" JJ yelled to the boy as he scrambled to get his shirt and cap off before the Heyward boy finally jumped in.

They all began to swim down toward the boat, trying to look inside but it had been too deep for them to search closer so they all swam back up to reach the surface. "You guys saw that?" JJ questioned with an excited smile.

"Yeah, I did," Kiara confirmed as the others all laughed in shock.

"What the hell?" Cassie breathed out, sharing an excited smile with her best friend.

"That's a Grady-White. A new one of those is like 500 Gs, easy," JJ told them as they all started to swim back onto the HMS Pogue.

Cassie began to climb back on before JJ pushed her back in the water since he had gotten back on the boat first. "You bitch!" Cassie said to him, falling back in the water.

"Wasn't me," JJ shrugged even though he had a devilish smirk on his face.

"You can only say that if I didn't see you do it, dipshit," Cassie retorted before she tried getting back onto the boat.

"Hey, hey, focus," John B cut in, not wanting their bantering to make them forget about what they just discovered.

"Right, yeah. That's a primo rig," JJ said as Cassie finally got back on the boat, crossing her arms and giving the blonde a dirty look.

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

"You surfed the surge?" Kiara asked, a look of concern growing on her face whereas Cassie started to nod, impressed by the boy. She had surfed on occasion, but had always been a bit jealous by those who seemed to be great at like. Like JJ, unfortunately. She would never admit that though.

"That's my boy. Pogue style," JJ dabbed him up, which made Cassie stop nodding immediately because she didn't want it to look like she was agreeing with the Maybank boy.

"Wait, wait. Do we know whose boat that is?" Pope inquired.

"No, but we're about to find out," John B replied as he opened the compartment in the boat that stored the anchor.

"Dude, it's too deep," JJ told him.

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

"Well, I'm not resuscitating you. I'm just making that clear up front," JJ said, holding his hands up.

"Oh, so you haven't been wanting to hook up with him this whole time?" Cassie voiced in feigned confusion, gesturing between the two boys. JJ and John B shared a disgusted look while she just smiled, entertained.

"John B," Kiara said warningly.

"What?" John B chuckled since he felt like they were all making this a bigger deal than it was.

"Diver down, fool," Pope said.

"Diver down," John B saluted.

"Yeah, he is," JJ confirmed before he shoved John B off the boat, making him fall in harshly.

"Are you trying to get him killed so you actually have an excuse to resuscitate him or...?" Cassie trailed off.

"If you care oh so deeply," JJ began, holding a hand up to his heart, "then why don't you go down there after him and stay there for good measure?" He shot back.

"Why don't you shove the anchor up your—"

"Guys," Kiara spoke through clenched teeth, stopping Cassie before she could finish, since she was busy worrying about John B and didn't want to hear the bickering.

"Should we actually go get him?" Pope asked when it seemed like he wasn't coming back up any time soon.

But right after he had said that, John B popped back up above the surface of the water. "Oh my God, that took forever!" Kiara exclaimed as John B coughed.

"Ah, jeez," JJ breathed out in relief.

"Were you enjoying the view?" Cassie teased the Routledge boy, raising her brows.

"Any dead bodies?" Pope asked him.

"No."

"Looting potential?" JJ shouted.

"No. I found this motel key." John B held up a key to show them.

"Uh, a key?" Pope repeated.

"Yes, a key, Pope," John B replied sardonically as he climbed back up onto the boat.

"Great! We salvaged a motel key," JJ said sarcastically.

"Maybe we can use it to unlock your brain and figure out why you're so stupid," Cassie jested his way.

"Hey, I wasn't even talking to you!" JJ complained, holding out his arms while Cassie just shrugged mischievously in response.

"Guys, we should report the wreck to the coast guard. Maybe we'll get a finder's fee," Kiara pointed out as John B began to sail back.

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

authors note!
this is a long first chapter oopsies
but this is the start of guilty as sin?
if you've read brutal, i think u can
already tell that cassie and kyla r
completely different from each other
already LMAOO i needed to change
things up yknow. haha anyway i
hope u guys enjoyed this first chapter!
(also idk if u guys could tell but i tried
to make the gif at the top be like what
the show does when john b introduces
all of the pogues 😭 hopefully y'all caught
that LMAO)