"JOEY MAYBANK"
AKA; PROLOGUE

Joey Maybank hated beer.

But somehow, some way, she was at the keg anyway when Topper Thorton approached her. He was slightly drunk, distracted by the halloween strobe lights the host had busted out of their garage, and seemingly captured by the pretty blonde girl filling drinks for her and her friend.

She smiled, he smiled, and then she told him her name.

"I'm Joey."

❛ That's Joey, Jo — or as the kooks likes to call her — the pogue princess. ❜

"Topper." He introduced back.

She snorted, "Topper? 'Kay,"

It was a kook party she had snuck into at Georgia's prompt — simply to pregame for the one they would hit later at the Chateau. Joey had done nothing special to herself that day. She was dressed in denim shorts and crochet tank that Kie made her for her birthday, her blond hair neat on her shoulders.

Still, he thought she was the most beautiful girl at the party.

❛ Her real name is Johanna, but she'd kill you if you ever called her that. ❜

Joey recognized him from the island, and primarily from the rich side. His mother had bought some art of her on a few occasions. She was one of her best customers actually. He knew her face just as well, and he could've sworn he'd seen her by the Marina with the Rutledge family a time or two.

They'd both seen each other around. They both knew where the other came from.

❛ Local like the rest of her family, just in a different way. You see, she's like this insanely talented painter — like insanely talented. ❜

The pogue princess. That's the name he knew her by until seconds before. He wouldn't admit it that night, but he didn't mind seeing her on Figure Eight every once and while. And he definitely wouldn't snitch she shouldn't have been there.

Maybe it was the liquor, or the haze of vapour in the air, or her douchebag blindness — but Joey didn't think he looked half bad that night either.

❛ If you've been to the market, then you know who she is. ❜

She wasn't usually into hookups. He wasn't really either. But they were both already breaking rules — one more couldn't hurt, right?

They chatted, until they kissed, and found themselves giggling out of the house, and into the backseat of his car.

❛ It's made her pretty popular with the tourists — and to everyone else, just pretty and popular. Unless you ask her brother. ❜

What would JJ think?

Nothing good, that's for sure. But the answer was simple: Joey didn't care.

The adrenaline rush and alcohol were buzzing through both of them. What her brother didn't know, wouldn't kill him.

❛ My two best friends since third grade. Seriously, I've known those two for eight years, never went a day without seeing them argue. ❜

An hour later, she was arriving at the pogue party, with a smile on her face and pep in step she never knew before that night. JJ noticed, but she explained nothing, and proceeded to steal a hit from the joint dangling between his fingers instead.

❛ I don't know what I would do without JJ and Jo ❜

They weren't supposed to see each other again. She wasn't supposed to run into him at the market a week later, and end up in his car. He wasn't supposed to find her phone number in his mom's phone and invite her over a few days later.

She wasn't supposed to keep coming back. And he wasn't supposed to teach her how to scale his house and climb in through his window.

❛ I know that if any pogue is gonna get off the cut, it'll be Joey. We'll all be there to cheer her on. ❜

This was supposed to be a one time thing.